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A HISTORY 



OF A FRAGMENT 
OF 



qH)? (Elan ffittttt 



AND A GENEALOGY OF THE LINN 
AND RELATED FAMILIES 



By 
DR. GEORGE WILDS LINN 



Let shamrock, thistle, mistletoe combine 
Recall the halcyon days of auld lang syne 



1905 












:» 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Conl«s Received 

JUN 12 1906 

» Copyn*m Entry^^ 
ci/ss Q,' x7c.*o. 






Copyright, 1906, 
By George Wilds Linn. 




Spbtratfb 



MOST AFFECTIONATELY TO THE BUDS AND TWIGS OF 

OUR BRANCH OF THE FAMILY TREE, WHOSE 

ROOTS ARE OLDER THAN THE 

CHRISTIAN ERA 

MAY THEY NEVER BE BLASTED BY THE 

CHILLING WINDS OF POVERTY, NOR ENERVATED BY THE 

HOT-BEDS OF RICHES. 



PART I 



HISTORICAL 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Introduction 9 

Decease of Dr. Alexander Erwin Linn at Concord, 
Franklin County, Pa. The name Linn disappears at the 
place of original settlement after the lapse of one hundred 
and sixteen years. The data on which the book rests. 

CHAPTER II. 
Nationality of the Linn Family 12 

National traits. The Celts or original inhabitants of Great 
Britain. Their characteristics. The Linns were Celts. 

CHAPTER III. 
The Name Linn 16 

Signification of some of the given or baptismal names in 
the family. Surnames. Derivation of the name Linn as 
seen in the Greek, Celtic and Erse or Highland Scotch 
languages. Signification of the name Linn in the writings 
of Sir Walter Scott and the Scottish bard Campbell. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Ancestry and Migration to Ireland 21 

Ecclesiastical wars in Ireland. Battle of the Boyne, 
Lands in Ulster divided among the conquerors. The Linns, 
Widneys and Erwins migrate to Ireland. Intermarriages 
between these families. Their ancestry. 

CHAPTER V. 
Emigration 25 

War for American Independence. Whigs and Tories. 
Emigration of James Widney. Hugh Linn decides to 
emigrate. Departure from Newry and Londonderry. America 
then almost a terra incognita. Philadelphia in 1788. The 
Emigrants travel over the old Lancaster road. The Buck 
Tavern. Chester Valley. Valley Forge. Site of the Paoli 
massacre. The Brandywine. Colonel Burd's mansion. Harris' 
Ferry. Fort Loudon. They reach their destination. 



CHAPTER VI. 
The Land of Their Adoption 



Reverence the keynote of their religion. Originally Cal- 
vimstic. Reasons for embracing Arminianism. Hugh Linn 
establishes lay reading and preaching in his cabin, no church 
being accessible Bishop Asbury preaches in Concord, 
trials of the early itinerant. 

CHAPTER XI. 
The Dispersion of the Linns 

u'M. resen T • Iocati ° n of the descendants of John Linn. Of 
\\ illiarn Linn. Of Mary (linn) Loughridge. Of Hugh Linn, 

?t- I J??, es Lmn - ° f J ane ( Linn > Campbell. Of Nancy 
(L.inn) Wallace. * 

CHAPTER XII. 
The Abandoned Site of the Old Homestead Visited 

The spring still flows. Domesticated flowers still growing 
Reflections 1 he village cemetery. An Elegy. The village 
of Concord. Farewell stanzas. 



PAGI 

33 



40 



Jnh fu e Mountains of Pennsylvania. Path Valley so 
called because of Indian Trail. Description of Path Valley. 
Settlement of the valley by the Scotch Irish. vaiiey. 

CHAPTER VII. 
Pioneer Life 

Our indebtedness to the pioneer. The pioneer cabin. 
The fire place and tinder box. The "tallow dip." Method 
ot raising first crops. Primitive grist mill or "Corn 

££ "• p i 3X - a Abs £ nce °. f PO^ omces. The "circuit 
rider. Early roads. Domestic medicine. 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Pioneer Life (Continued) c 

Sports and recreations of pioneer life. Hunting and 
fishing The shooting match. Musters. The Fourth of 
July Gathering of fruits and nuts. Applebutter making. 
Winter evening readings. The husking bee. The spelling 
bee. The quilting bee. 

CHAPTER IX. 
Another Hearthstone Laid and Another Altar Erected. . 62 

Hugh Linn selects a site and builds his cabin. Training 
ot his children. A glimpse into the domestic circle. Family 
worship. Influences of early religious training. 

CHAPTER X. 
The Religion of the Linns 



68 



75 



83 



CHAPTER I. 

"There's a divinity that shapes our ends, 
Rough-hew them how we will." — Shakespeare. 

THE decease of Dr. Alexander Erwin Linn, aged 
seventy-six years, followed by the removal of his 
family from Concord, Franklin Co., Pennsylvania, in the 
last year (1904), marks an important epoch in the his- 
tory of the Linn family. For more than a century they 
had been prominently identified with the life and interests 
of that village which they helped to found years after 
their settlement in America. By death and removal the 
name has become extinct in that community, and hence- 
forth may be known in the village annals only by the let- 
ters cut in marble or granite in the little cemetery which 
crowns the hilltop nearby, where a few ancient pine trees 
stand, sentinel-like, guarding the last resting places of 
the dead. 

The swiftly fleeting current of events, the whirligig of 
time, has dispersed us as completely as did the confusion 
of tongues the builders of Babel's tower. A few on the 
Atlantic seaboard still look out on the waters of the great 
ferry which our forefathers crossed, as if they would go 
over and worship at the shrine of their ancestors on 
Scotia's bold and rocky coast, or perhaps cast a flower on 
the stream of that mighty current which, for unnumbered 
aeons, has kissed alternately the shores of our own loved 
land and those where yet the thistle and shamrock hold 



10 THE CLAN LINN. 



sway, that it might bear to our kin on the other side a 
message of love and remembrance. 

The great majority, moved by a spirit of worthy enter- 
prise, have crossed the Alleghenies into that wonderful 
valley where the streams of the Ohio, Mississippi and 
Missouri blend, destined soon to be the garden spot of the 
earth and of the highest civilization of ancient or modern 
time. Others have ascended the plateaus of the Conti- 
nental Divide, and still others, inspired by the magic 
verse, "Westward the star of Empire takes its way," are 
already on the sands of the Pacific looking out on its 
placid bosom, as if longing for another world to conquer. 
True to the instincts of their Scotch Irish ancestry, and 
filled with the restless activity and indomitable enterprise 
of their forefathers, they have kept in the van of civiliza- 
tion and form an important factor in the life of the com- 
munities in which they now dwell. 

Our branch of the Linn family came to this country in 
the year 1788, so that for nearly a century the pair who 
emigrated in middle life, father and mother, have been 
resting from their labors. Only a few persons now liv- 
ing, most of them already past the eightieth mile stone of 
life's journey, can rehearse with any accuracy or detail 
the story of their emigration and settlement in the New 
World, .as it came from the lips of the second generation. 
They alone can realize something of the hardships of a 
pioneer life. 

The data on which this book rests are to be found in a 
series of notes made by the author more than forty years 
ago as they were dictated to him bv his grandparents, 
Hugh Linn 2d and his wife, Ann ( Widney) Linn, both 



INTRODUCTION. n 



of them at that time eighty years of age. Ad- 
ditional notes were also made as dictated by his great 
aunt, Miss Jane Widney, about the same time. She was 
a daughter of James Widney, who emigrated from Ire- 
land and settled in Path Valley, Pa., in 1784. She had a 
remarkably retentive memory and loved to relate the inci- 
dents which had been transmitted to her by her father, as 
they had been received by him from former generations. 

The experiences, labors, sacrifices and adventures de- 
tailed made a vivid and indellible impression on his mind, 
but he did not then think that the task would devolve 
upon him long afterward of reproducing some of those 
incidents for posterity. 

The following pages are especially intended for the 
younger members of the clan, with the hope that their 
perusal may inspire them to emulate the noble virtues and 
sterling qualities which characterized their ancestors. 



CHAPTER II. 

JNaiumaltiy. 

"Jlowe'er it be, it seems to me, 
'Tis only noble to be good; 
Kind words are more than coronets 
And simple faith than Norman blood. "-Tennyson. 

^ HENCE came I? What am I? Whither am I go- 

mg? are among the greatest questions which 

have ever presented themselves to man for solution It 

senle tht 6 * "^ ^ ^ * at °^ in a limi ^ 

sense that we are now concerned. We are accustomed 

to attribute to different nationalities various traits We 
speak and perhaps with good reason, of the crafty Span- 
iard, the volatile Frenchman, the phelgmatic German and 
the conservative Englishman, but we cannot class our- 
selves with any of these. We belong to a race which is 
older than any of them. 

Hundreds of years before the Christian era, when 
Solomon was building the temple of Jerusalem, the mer- 
chants of Tyre and Sidon who were furnishing him with 
materials, were sending their ships through the Straits of 
Gibraltar, afterward called by the Romans the Pillars of 

Brita" S 'T^ ^T ^ "" "° W kn0wn as Great 
Britain. There they traded for tin, furs, lead, etc., with 

the strange inhabitants who were said to be enterprising 
but nomadic and warlike, and living in rude dwelling!] 
often fortified, in the midst of the forests 

They were the vanguard of those great currents of 
humanity, which from time immemorial had been sweep- 



NATIONALITY. 13 



ing in successive waves across the Continent of Europe 
from the elevated plateaus of Asia. They were the pio- 
neers of thousands of years ago, who had reached the 
Ultima Thule of the ancient geographer and could get 
no further on account of the ocean. 

When Julius Caesar set about conquering the world, 
B. C. 55, he took an army into Britain, and in his his- 
tory of the invasion, referring to the long habitation of 
the islands, said, "Tradition maintains that the people 
of the interior sprang from the soil." From this we may 
infer that the early migrations into the islands took place 
long before the memory of man. For more than four 
hundred years the Roman legions persisted in their at- 
tempts to subdue this bold people. Many were driven 
into the mountains of Wales, some over the sea into Ire- 
land, and others into the Highlands of Scotland, where 
they were afterward known as Picts. 

A wall was built by the Roman Emperor Hadrian, be- 
tween the river Tyne and Solway Frith, called the "Picts 
Wall," to secure the country south from their incursions, 
for they persistently fought for their independence and 
could not be dislodged from their mountain fastnesses. 
Thus we see that the Picts were the descendants of the 
original inhabitants of Britain who were called Celts, 
and that the origin of the Celts is lost in remote antiquity. 

Such a people, by virtue of their environment, their 
contests with a rigorous climate, wild beasts and warlike 
neighbors, were necessarily a hardy race. Inured to 
toil and privation, unconquerable in spirit, defiant of un- 
due restraint, they maintained their independence in 
spite of every effort to subdue them by successive in- 



14 THE CLAN LINN. 



vaders. They were no silken sybarites enervated by liv- 
ing in kings' houses. Of such were the valiant Wal- 
lace, the intrepid Bruce, Murray and Douglas and a host 
of less known warriors. It was the same fiery blood 
which coursed through the veins of John Knox, inspired 
the Covenanters with the zeal of the martyrs, and fired the 
heart of Sir Walter Scott, in his literary race with dis- 
ease and death, when Abbottsford was dearer to him 
than life itself. 

Intellectually alert, they early established seats of learn- 
ing which rivaled those of more central and favored coun- 
tries. Inheriting the reverence of their Druidical ances- 
tors for a Supreme Being, they were a people of deep 
religious feelings, and "The Cotter's Saturday Night," 
the masterpiece of Burns, presents no fanciful picture, 
but is true to the life. 

The rigor of their northern climate drew closer the 
bonds of family life, intensified the love of the hearth- 
stone, cemented yet more strongly the ties of kinship, 
and made them "clannish," in striking contrast to the 
Latin races, and as the family is the unit of the nation 
rather than the individual, their effectiveness in war was 
correspondingly increased. 

The Linns were genuine Celts and inherited a love for 
nature, and nature in her wildest moods, — a love for 
towering mountains, precipitous rocks, sombre woods, 
leaping streams and deep valleys. The thunder echoing 
from mountain peak to mountain peak, the fitful plash 
of foaming, swirling cataract, the arrowy rush and sullen 
roar of angry stream, impatient of its narrow bounds, 
the querulous moan of giant tree swaying to the fierce 



NATIONALITY. 15 



attack of relentless blast, are but as music to a soul cra- 
dled for long centuries among Highland clouds and Low- 
land mists. 

Bold, energetic and self-reliant, they have ever pursued 
their way undaunted and contented in the midst of 
humanity's seething masses, assured that peace and con- 
tentment are greater prizes in the tournament of life 
than the baubles wealth and fashion, or social and politi- 
cial preferment. 



CHAPTER III. 

Sty* Jfam* Ettttt. 

The name doth often like the reputation grow, 
Then let us in our daily lives but good acts know. 

A LMOST all proper names may be considered as 
having a definite origin. This is true of "given" 
or Christian names as well as of surnames. This is not 
the place, nor would the limits of such a little book as 
this permit us, to give any extended account of the ori-in 
of names For the benefit of the younger members'of 
tne family, however, a digression may be permitted in 
order to give the derivation and meaning of a few given 
names found among us before we turn to the surname 
or family name itself, in which all must be deeply inter- 
ested. 

The name Hugh, which for many generations has 
been preserved in the Linn family, and which we hope 
may ever be transmitted to posterity, is of Latin origin 
bemg derived from the Latin word Hugo, which means 
spirit. It has been handed down in various languages in 
a very similar form, in the Italian Ugo, Spanish and Por- 
tuguese Hugo, French Hughues, Danish and German 
Hugh Its frequency in this latter form, Hugh, in the 
British Isles is proof of the great influence and power 
exercised by the Danes for centuries following their in- 
cursions across the North Sea. The preservation of the 
name and its employment in so many different languages 
is an indication of its beauty and popularity. It is some- 



THE NAME LINN. 17 



times used as a surname, as in Mac-hugh or McHugh, 
Mac or Mc being the Scottish equivalent for son. 

William is derived from the old High German lan- 
guage and means a helmet or defence. In the modern 
German it is found as Wilhelm and in French as Guil- 
laume. Edward is Anglo-Saxon, meaning a guardian of 
property. Charles is old German, signifying manly, noble 
spirited. George is from the Greek language meaning 
a landholder or husbandman. Alexander is of German 
origin, meaning a defender of men. Richard and Walter 
are old High German, the former signifying rich hearted, 
the latter ruling the heart, Harold, Anglo-Saxon, a 
champion. 

Some names found among Linn families are of He- 
brew origin, — James and Jacob signifying a supplanter, 
Thomas, a twin, Benjamin, son of the right hand, John, 
the gracious gift of God, Samuel, asked of God, David, 
beloved. 

Among the names of women are Margaret, a pearl, 
from the Greek; Arabella, fair altar, from the Latin; 
Amanda, Old German, to be loved ; Helen, Greek, signi- 
fies light; Alice, Old German, a princess, as does also 
Sarah. Clara is the Latin for bright. Esther and Hes- 
ter are from the Persian, meaning a star. From the 
Hebrew language we have taken Elizabeth, a worshiper 
of God ; Martha, a ruler of the house ; Mary, meaning bit- 
ter ; Anna, grace ; and Ruth, beauty. 

Surnames, that is the family name proper, originally 
designated occupation, estate, place of residence, or 
some particular thing or event that related to the person, 
and as illustrations may be mentioned Mason, Carpenter, 



18 



THE CLAN LINN. 



Baker, Weaver.-White, Black, Brown -Lon<r Sm,n 

*:T'~w b X' ^ s '^-"-B- d L b x B s r r£ 

fnTJ'T^ I ' ^° rth ' N ° rf0lk ( the Nor 'h people) Suf- 
fjoh„ ( >"so S „ ) Uth Pe ° P,e) ' WUSOn (Wi »' S S °»> in- 
The name Loughridge, Laughridge or Lochrid^ 
prominent in our genealogical record* is derived rom 
two words, the first from the Latin lacus, German 12 

■ng a° .ake'o 5 ;^? f " ,OUgH ' Irish *+• *» ™» 

Greek Jl° r" "^ ^ the Second from «« 
„ '•*'', German ™cken, Anglo-Saxon hrychsr 

meanmg an elevation, so that the signification oftlfe 
name „ an elevated lake. Such bodies of water are nu 
merous m the Scottish Highlands. I„ Lough in La„rt" 
hn, Lochl n, we have the m rf ,k„ • L augn- 

with the word i;„ thewor <i above given, combined 

with the word hn, concernmg which see below 

thatoftjr? i,,l ! ( t t rati0n ° f the ° f ' ein of nam - « 
olied I 2 ' denVCd ,. from the oM word *■*, and ap- 
phed to those usmg a hammer. For this reason it is so 
common, and according to the material on which per- 
sons wrought we have Goldsmith, Silversmith, etc The 
reason for the various methods of spelling the same 
name ,s found in the fact that before the art of p in,™ 
about ,450, and the making of dictionaries and'spS 
books (less than two hundred years ago) there wa no 
tmammity among writers as to'the moVco^ ZZ 

n TT/ T Wer 3 giVe " S0 ™ d - In *ed very few 
people could then write. Even kings and queens madl 
a mark ,n signmg a document. Hence scribes in 
vanous sections of the country varied in heir "pe in^ 
of words and put them on paper in script accordL to 
md,v,dual fancy. Thus we have Smith, Smyth, Smy* 



THE NAME LINN. 19 



Shoemaker, Shumaker, Schumacher, etc. Even yet, 
lexicographers, the makers of dictionaries, spell many 
common words differently. 

Many other examples might be given to illustrate the 
origin of some of the Christian or baptismal names in use 
among the Linn families, and of surnames in general, 
but we must now turn to that which is of especial inter- 
est to everyone who bears the generic name of LINN. 

The name Linn is of Celtic origin (the Celts having 
been, as we have seen, the original inhabitants or the 
aborigines of the British Isles), and is older than the 
Christian era. We may even trace it to the Greek word 
rtyr) meaning a depression containing water and hav- 
ing its counterpart in the Welsh glyn, Gaelic gleann, 
Anglo-Saxon and English glen. In the gradual evolu- 
tion of language the g in the word being dropped it was 
transferred to the water lying in the depression, with a 
change in the orthography, so that we have the Welsh 
word Uyn, and the Gaelic linne. The Gaelic language 
includes the Erse or Highland Scotch and the Irish lan- 
guages. In the course of time the word was applied to a 
placid lake-like body of water. Historians and philo- 
logists tell us that the City of London derived its name 
early in the Christian era from the word lin, a body of 
quiet water, and dun, a fortified hill on its banks, and 
hence means the fort by the lake, the words being united 
and having a different spelling for reasons given above. 
Still later the word was given to the pool of deep water 
at the foot of a waterfall, afterward to the waterfall 
itself, and finally to the wild, precipitous, cavernous 
heights surrounding it. 

Walter Scott in "Old Mortality" uses the word in both 



20 THE CLAN LINN. 



meanings. In Chapter XLII, near the end, we read, 
"Anawsome place," answered the woman, "as ever liv- 
ing creature took refuge in. They ca' it the Black Linn 
of Lenklater." In Chapter XLIII, we read, "A girlish 
treble voice asked him from without Tf he wad please 
gang to the Linn,' " and further on, "And do you often 
go this wild journey my little maid?" "When grannie 
sends me wi milk and meal to the Linn." Later still 
Scott says, "Although he had heard of the champions of 
the Covenant who had long abidden beside Dot's Linn 
on the wild heights of Polmoodie, and others who had 
been concealed in the yet more terrible cavern called 
Crichope Linn in the parish of Closeburn, yet his imagi- 
nation had never exactly figured out the horrors of such 
a residence." 

The Scotch bard Campbell has a poem, entitled, "Cora 
Linn, or the Falls of the Clyde," two stanzas of which 
are as follows : 

"Dear Linn! let loftier falling floods 

Have prouder names than thine; 
And king of all, enthroned in woods, 
Let Niagara shine. 

"More fury would but disenchant 

Thy dream-inspiring din ; 
Be thou the Scottish Muse's haunt, 
Romantic Cora Linn!" 

From what we have seen it is evident that the name 
Linn was given many centuries ago to people who dwelt 
in the vicinity of turbulent, tumultuous, foaming cata- 
racts, with their accompaniments of precipitous craggy 
mountains and gloomy caverns, so characteristic of the 
wild Scottish Highlands. 



CHAPTER IV. 

fHujratum to ilrelanb anfo Attreatnj. 

"The rank is but the guinea's stamp, 

The man's the gowd for a' that." 
"The honest man tho' e'er sae poor 

Is king o' men for a' that." — Burns. 

EVERY hive must have a swarm if it be a healthy- 
one, and in course of time the Linns looked about 
for some place which might offer greater inducements 
for comfort than the bleak and often barren heights of 
Scotland. Farther north they could not go on account 
of the stormy seas and frozen zone, and looking west 
and south they saw but a short distance away the 
"Emerald Isle." 

Great changes had been taking place there. The long 
and bitter struggle between the factions of Protestantism 
and Catholicism had mainly subsided. The memorable 
siege of Londonderry had been raised, the battle of the 
Boyne had been fought, the forces of King James had 
been driven to the south of Ireland, and he had fled to 
France. Thousands of his adherents, fearing to remain 
in the north, had also gone south, and the followers of 
King William, the Prince of Orange, found themselves 
in possession of the country. 

Following his conquest, the new king, in accordance 
with the custom of war in early days, had taken posses- 
sion of the lands of his enemies and partitioned them 
among his followers. Thousands of acres of the choicest 
lands in Ulster thus changed hands. Army officers, 

3 21 



22 



THE CLAN LINN. 



who had followed him on the Continent and in Ireland 
were granted large estates. 

Then came a demand for new and more desirable 
tenants and citizens. Protestants were naturally in 
favor with a Protestant ownership, and now followed an 
exodus of Scotch people to Ireland, not simply tillers of 
the soil, but also artisans and tradesmen of every class 
and Ulster became a centre into which flowed thousands 
of sons of pure Scottish blood, making it a stronghold 
of Protestantism which it has remained ever since. 

Into this current of migration the Linns were drawn 
and with the mass of their countrymen took up their 
abode in the northeastern or Scottish side of Ulster Ire- 
land's northern Province, in County Down, near Newry 
I\ew friendships of a business and social nature were 
acquired among the people of the neighborhood and ad- 
jacent counties on the west, Armagh, Monaghan Fer- 
managh and Tyrone (a distance from Newrv of but a 
few miles). Settlers in a new location are quick to dis- 
cover those who hail from their own fatherland for 
among them they find their own national traits and' cus- 
toms, a common language and religion, and like business 
and political methods, not to speak of that feeling of 
kinship which draws people of the same nationality to- ' 
gether when in a strange land. Among the friendships 
thus formed were those of two families, newcomers like 
themselves, with whom their destinies were to be linked 
for generations. One of these families was named Wid- 
ney, the other Erwin. 

The Widneys were descended from a Colonel Widney 
an officer in the army of William the Prince of Orange 



MIGRATION. 23 



of Holland. He accompanied the Prince to England in 
the year 1688, and in the following year was with the 
army under the Duke of Schomberg in the campaign 
against King James II. He was at the battle of the 
Boyne, July nth, 1690, and subsequently received from 
the crown for his services a considerable estate in County 
Tyrone, which was handed down to his descendants. 

Colonel Widney's grandson James, whom we shall 
call James Widney 1st, married Mary Wilson, of Bally- 
bay,County Monaghan, about the year 1750, and had six 
children who grew to maturity. James Widney 2d, 
brother of Sarah (Widney) Linn, was the eldest and, 
according to the law of primogeniture, inherited the an- 
cestral estate. He was known as a country gentleman 
or Squire, not having any taxes to pay except to the 
crown. Being of an enterprising spirit he determined 
to cast his fortune with the newly born country across 
the sea, and when thirty-one years of age sold the ances- 
tral property and with all his brothers and sisters, Sarah 
excepted, emigrated to America. 

They sailed from Londonderry on the U. S. Ship of 
War "Congress" (Captain Knox), which had been fitted 
for passenger traffic, and landed in Philadelphia Septem- 
ber 17, 1784. James Widney bought six hundred acres 
of land in Path Valley, Franklin (then Cumberland) 
County, Pennsylvania, and lived there until his decease 
in 1835, at the a & e °f eighty-two years. 

The Erwins were descended from an ancient Scotch 
family. Crinan Erwin was Secretary of State in Scot- 
land and married the daughter of Malcolm II in 1004. 
King Duncan I was his son. One of Crinan's heirs in- 



2 4 THE CLAN LINN. 



herited the estate of Bonshaw, which is an Earldom, and 
the 25th Earl of Bonshaw is still an Erwin. King 
Robert the Bruce, of Scotland, made William Erwin (a 
son of the Earl of Bonshaw) his Secretary and Adjutant 
in his wars and gave him the Barony of Drum, which is 
still in the Erwin family. Their coat-of-arms was also 
given them by King Robert the Bruce, and consists of 
three holly leaves bound together in sets of three on the 
shield. The first Erwin who went to Ireland from 
Scotland, about the time of the battle of the Boyne, was 
a lawyer named John Erwin. He built "Castle Erwin" 
in County Fermanagh, adjoining County Tyrone, which 
is still in the hands of his descendants. 

James Widney 2d, great-grandson of Colonel Widney, 
married in the year 1775, Ann Erwin, whose father was 
a minister of the Established Church of En-land at 
Aughnacloy, County Tyrone, and Hugh Linn married, 
1777, Sarah Widney, a sister of James Widney. Thus 
we see the blood of the Linns and Widneys mingled in 
one family and that of the Widneys and Erwins in an- 
other. Subsequently a son of Hugh Linn (Hu-h Linn 
2d) married Ann Widney, a daughter of James Widney 
2d and Ann (Erwin) Widney, she being his full cousin, 
and in that branch of the family of which the writer is a 
member is mingled the blood of the Linns, Widneys and 
Erwins. 



A 



CHAPTER V. 

iEmujraittftt. 

"Westward the Star of Empire takes its way." 

T this period the war for American independence 
was being waged. Thousands of Scotch Irish 
had come to America and settled in New York, New 
Jersey and Pennsylvania, and many had penetrated the 
wilds of the backwoods. They were a most potent 
factor in the revolution, and probably no race of men 
did more effective military service in those dark and 
trying days. For hundreds of years the Scotch and 
English had been inveterate foes. From the time of 
the bloody battle of Bannockburn they had fed the fires 
of hatred, and the child of the wild and fiery Celt had 
learned at his mother's knee to lisp the vow of vengeance 
against his traditional enemy. The children of the 
Highlander had come to this new country to build homes 
and rear their families, where religious persecution and 
political enmity might be unknown. 

"Him whom the gods would destroy they first make 
mad," and the tyranny of the imbecile George III, blind 
to his own interests and the welfare of England, fol- 
lowed the Covenanter, the Puritan and the Huguenot 
into their new and God-given heritage. When the hand 
of despotism was raised against them in America the 
latent fires of hatred burned afresh, the sluagh-ghairm 
(the ancient slogan of the Highlands calling the people 
together against a common enemy), echoed again and 

25 



26 THE CLAN LINN. 

again through the fertile valleys as news of taxation 
wuhout represe ntation spread through the settlme s 
Each vl age and hamlet was a rallying point for the 
fnends of constitutional liberty, and King George was so 
often burned in effigy that children said he washing 
ta. manof straw," and they came near expressing the 

Citizens were divided into two great camps, the Whitrs 
and t e Torie , The ^ were ^ ^P ^ W, g 

more than a century i, had been applied in Scotland (and 

■1 h '" ^ g d) '° a " ° PP ° nentS ° l the usu T*ti°n 
nnposed on the people by the King and his adherents. 
The ter was firs( used as a der . s . ve 

Scotch Covenanters, who, in their simple abstemious life 

lal »'T > -r^ CaUed ln the ,M ^ °f *e High-' 

to all who advocated popular rights or the liberty of the 

cXV C ° ntrad ' Stin ? i0n t0 ^ P— -'he so- 
called d,vme nght of kings." The Tories were so 

named from the word ioir or toree, meaning a thief or 
robber and was applied by the Whigs to ah who sym- 
pathy w „h the King and roya, party i„ , heir °J£. 
to rob the people of their inalienable rights of "life lib- 
erty and the pursuit of happiness " 

News of the great struggle for American independence 
was wafted across the Atlantic month after month and 
undred hearts in Erin's Isle looked longinglv toward 
he new El Dorado. The desire to share in the f reTun' 
ram meI d „ fe of the pioneer was ^ « ™ 

^T Wi , X r eameSt Were the conferences held by 
the Wmneys, Lmns and Erwins concerning the wisdom 



EMIGRATION. 27 



of leaving home and kindred to live where yet the war- 
whoop of the savage was heard, and the smoke of cabins 
burned by the hand of the red man was daily rising. 

James Widney was a man of action, quick to think 
as well as act, and he resolved to surrender the comforts 
of an established home, and erect another hearthstone 
among the wilds of America. In 1784 he arrived at the 
site of the present village of Concord, and purchased six 
hundred acres of land, including most of that on which 
the village was subsequently built. 

A white-winged messenger was soon on its way to 
those he had left behind, describing the beauties and 
advantages of the new home, and soon other souls were 
stirred to follow in his footsteps. But time was neces- 
sary to prepare for a journey which involved the break- 
ing up of so many ties, business and social, and it was 
not until four years later, 1788, that Hugh Linn started 
on the long and tedious voyage across the ocean — a 
voyage then necessitating as many weeks as days at 
present. In arranging for this long journey it was de- 
cided that the second child, William, a lad of eight years, 
should be left in care of his aunt, Rebecca Lee. 

We cannot enter into the details of his parting, but 
who can realize the feelings of the man who is saying 
good-bye to friends with a full knowledge of the fact that 
he will never see them again ? The world was then a much 
more formidable object than it is today. A voyage 
across the Atlantic was the event of a lifetime. Steam- 
ships, railroads, telegraphs and telephones were not then 
dreamed of, and they have narrowed our planet down to 
a comparatively small compass. With eyes dimmed by 



28 THE CLAN LINN. 



tears and hands trembling with emotion, farewell is said 
and the lumbering car conveying them to Londonderry 
seventy-five miles away, moves creaking and jolting over 
the rough country roads. The church spires of Newry 
Emyvale and Aughnacloy, one by one, disappear in the 
distance, and the stone fences, and white thorn hedges 
which line the highway, close in behind them, shut- 
ting out forever the loved ones left behind. At last the 
old city made immortal by its memorable siege, and 
surrounded by its high and wide walls, looms up on the 
horizon, its gates are entered, and soon the hero of our 
story with wife and little ones, is seen climbing the 
gangplank of the vessel which is to carry them three 
thousand miles across the turbulent billows of the stormy 
Atlantic. The loud, hoarse cries of the sailors are heard 
m unison as the word to heave anchor is given, the cap- 
stan groans to the force of brawny arms, the hawser 
is thrown off, and the white wings of the sea-going bird 
of commerce shake themselves out to catch the passing 
breeze; a little longer and the rocky crown of Malin 
Head is seen on the port bow, and then the Green Isle 
disappears from view forever. Night settles down upon 
them the bright stars above and the yawning ocean be- 
neath surround them, while a prayer ascends for the 
guidance of that Unseen Power in which they long since 
learned to trust in every emergency of life 

But their journey is by no means at an end when the 
good ship touches the wharf at Philadelphia, then the 
chief seaport of this country. One hundred and fifty 
miles had yet to be traveled by wagon over the roughest 
roads (some of them scarcely fit for any wheeled vehi- 



EMIGRATION. 29 



cle), fording streams and threading forests until the goal 
of their ambition should be reached. Hugh Linn had 
companions on board ship, who, like himself, had come 
across the trackless deep to make new homes for them- 
selves, to hew out fortunes in the unknown wilds, to 
live and to die in the strange land. Strange it truly was, 
for it was almost unknown, a terra incognita, except the 
Atlantic seaboard and some points on the Gulf of Mexico 
and the Mississippi River. It was long after, that Lewis 
and Clarke made their famous expedition to the Pacific 
Ocean from the Mississippi River, which is just now 
(1905) the occasion of a great exposition at Portland, 
Oregon, and France and Spain still held in their grasp 
the greater portion of our vast domain. 

All were anxious to see the city laid out by William 
Penn, the "City of Brotherly Love." It was but a small 
place, containing only a few thousand inhabitants. 
Business houses were mainly confined to Front and Dock 
streets, a few being found on Market as far west as Sec- 
ond. Private residences were confined chiefly to Arch, 
Market and Walnut, between the Delaware River and 
Sixth street. A house built west of Eighth street was 
said to be "out in the country." The "State House," 
then the Capitol of the United States, and now known as 
Independence Hall, was of special interest. 

Having in a few hours satisfied their curiosity in view- 
ing the city which was already famous as the place where 
the Declaration of Independence was written and signed, 
and the Constitution of the United States drafted and 
adopted, they busied themselves in procuring horses and 
carts to convey them to their several destinations. Lad- 



30 THE CLAN LINN. 



mg their veh.cles with necessary provisions, their few 
household goods and camping outfit, among which the 
women and children had a place, they started westward 
the men walkmg, and in a few minutes, passing ou 

ifnfir of n £r had T^ ***** "«* «* *~ 
hm,t of bu.ld.ng, for all beyond that was devoted to 

farming, trucking and dairying. Crossing the Schuylkill 

R.ver by a ferry, they entered the Lancaster or "Cones- 

T5L f ° a ( .u he great highway leadin g w «* trough 
Lancaster to the mountains and beyond, and over which 

supphes for the backwoods regions were transported 

Ten mdes out from Philadelphia they came to a'fa- 

mous hostelry known as the "Buck Tavern," now the 

rLf ™ wr ' and near which was th * ™™°" of 

Charles Thompson, for many years Secretary of the 
Con mental Congress. Ten miles farther west they 
sk.rted the beautiful Chester Va.ley, into which they 
could look from the Lancaster Road three hundred feel 
above, one of the very beautiful valleys of Pennsylvania 
tl ree mdes w.de and fifteen long, and on the north side 

Fori Hi,, '" T T °J ° Ur "»««""* wa * "V.«? 
forge H.U, where Washington and his band of patriots 

were camped in the winter of .777-8. R ising , ike a cone 

from the bottom of the valley it was a conspicuous ob?ec 

for many mdes and has become a Mecca for the patriot 

and hmonan, ,ts summit still crowned by the trenches 

and fort erected by the army of the Revolution. A 

httle further and they pass near the site of the Paoli 

Massacre, and the mansion once occupied by General 

Wayne k n o wn to his contemporaries as "Mad Anthony 

Wayne, whose fidehty to Washington and patriotic zeal 



EMIGRATION. 3i 



were such that a local legend gives him credit for saying, 
that if Washington would plan the campaign he would 
storm hell itself. Ten miles more and they cross the 
waters of the Brandywine, on whose banks was fought 
the battle of that name. Beyond Lancaster, near High- 
spire, they pass the mansion of Colonel James Burd, who 
during the Revolution had commanded the 4th Battalion 
of Pennsylvania Riflemen. Little did Sarah (Widney) 
Linn, wife of Hugh Linn, think that in after years the 
daughter of Colonel Burd would become as the widow of 
Benjamin Wilds, the wife of her brother, James Widney 
to whose home they were going, and who was destined 
to lose, eighteen years later, the companion of his early 
married life. 

Thus the days passed as they wended their way to 
the Susquehanna at Harris' Ferry (now Harrisburg) and 
down the Cumberland Valley to the southern entrance of 
Path Valley at Fort Loudon. There they were but a 
day's journey from the cabin of James Widney, who 
looked long and anxiously for their arrival. His loca- 
tion was well known to the settlers, and they pointed out 
the way to it. He had selected as his future home a 
point in the extreme northeastern end of the valley, and 
from the "clearing" nearby could look out upon the 
beautiful valley below for many miles. His cabin was 
in a gentle depression called locally a "draft," through 
which two small streams ran into the valley from the 
mountain side. The "draft" extended upward toward 
the mountain and was rich in sugar maple trees, highly 
valued at that time as the source of supply of maple syrup 



32 



THE CLAN LINN. 



and sugar, for other varieties of those articles could not 
then be procured in the backwoods. 

The evening sun was setting behind the Tuscarora 
Mountain as Hugh Linn and his good wife reach d the 

nej s home. A few moments more and the two families 

he" ITe I" ' ng . eaCh < ?' her f ° r J °- V ' C ™^™ 
their safe arrival, mingling with thanks to the Father of 

aJ for a successful termination of their long and tan 

a' tfmlTTve T*T T** ** ««d^2 

hke v in V 'r 6 ,he fatted Calf Was ki,le d- ™°re 

hkeh in th,s case a deer or brace of wild turkeys from 
the surrounding forest =„rl H,-. i , ' ulKC > i Ir om 

of thos<. IrftTS.- i* r ' d3VS ela P sed in ta| king 

of those left behmd m Ireland. Who had died ? Who 
had marned? Who were born? were questions asked 
and answered, while a thousand matters of am , "and 

The/hau hb ,°k h0 r d im r St "»** *- ^-^ 
Jhl \ A ' J C ° rteZ - bUmed their shi P s ^hind them 

they had crossed the Rubicon, they could not hope to go 

backhand knew that henceforth their destinies must oe 
linked with the land of their adoption. 



CHAPTER VI. 

"There is a land of every land the pride, 
Beloved of heaven o'er all the world beside; 
Where brighter suns dispense serener light, 
And milder moons imparadise the night. 
O thou shalt find howe'er thy footsteps roam, 
That land thy country, and that spot thy home! -Prentice. 

BUT someone may ask what sort of locality is that to 
which our ancestors came, for few of their de- 
scendants have seen the place where their forefathers 
lived, or can ever expect to visit it. A glance at the 
map will show a series of mountain ranges extending 
from central Pennsylvania to southern Virginia known 
as the "Blue Mountains" on account of the beautiful deli- 
cate blue haze which envelops them at certain seasons of 
the year Their course is due southwest and northeast, 
and they consist of ranges rising about 2,000 feet above 
the sea level and a thousand feet above the intermediate 
valleys, while they are as parallel to each other as though 
laid out by a surveyor's instrument. 

Their symmetry is one of their remarkable and beauti- 
ful features. Instead of being formed of irregular 
mountain masses fissured in various directions and lead- 
ing by successive steps from one plateau to another, still 
higher, thus permitting roadways to be built among them 
in various directions, each range is distinctly longitu- 
dinal, separate from the others, and rises sharply from 
the adjacent valleys. The ascent is as steep and uniform 

33 



34 



THE CLAN LINN. 



^t:zt e :v: ;-* p : ha i one stand ^ *« 

down into the v 2 bo, ™ f°? ^"^ P ° sition '«* 
They are fon^^T ££??? ? dther ^ 
rock turned ede-ewk,. h S Smg,e strat "m of 

ture in the di^Zt LdT^ COn ™ ,Sion ° f "*" 
even for the hunter g ' PreCarious ^hold 

of which are sonlZls ^.r,"* ™ St "^ 
sides are so covered w th ? 3Ce ' and vet '"^r 

Pine and otherlrt, " e ZEZf?*?* ^"^ 
Men. Their tons an> Z , T, hw bare s P° ts are 
at from the vauTy s tai'st ^ hi T^ tha '' '° 0ked 
a-most as stra lg ht as fn'^row '" ** ^ *** ™ m 

a~-rt=s;i:Vhe^r stask - 

forth on the n,ou n tat s de s at a^h "*"**"* *»* a " d 
reach the su mm it. when ley Z£?ZF*' """ ** 
to the valley on the opposite sid A f T mamer 

'he level oft "id^d^ar^^ *" " 
The valleys ht * "" and exit of "»«* 



THE LAND OF THEIR ADOPTION. 35 



are furnished with an abundance of fine timber. Many 
have an excellent fertile limestone soil and are also sup- 
plied with beautiful springs ; some of them of sufficient 
capacity to furnish power for a mill. As the mountains 
preserve an almost uniform height and contour, each val- 
ley maintains an almost uniform width, though different 
valleys vary in width from a division of no appreciable 
size (simple clefts between the ranges) to several miles, 
and many of them, because of their beauty, may well be 
called veritable Vales of Cashmere. 

It was to one of these valleys, known as "Path Valley," 
well watered and well wooded, to which Hugh Linn 
came in 1788, and if you would see it in its beauty, go 
any time between May and November and stand on what 
is known locally as "The Knob," a spur of the Tuscarora 
range of mountains, a mile northeast of the present vil- 
lage of Concord and a thousand feet above the Tuscarora 
Creek, a stream seen like a silver thread far below. The 
valley reminds one of a vast sunken garden. Stretching 
like a great checker-board, as far as the eye can reach is 
a succession of fields, some given to pasturage, some to 
crops of wheat, corn and other cereals, while nestling in 
nooks or perched on the hill sides are farm houses with 
their barns and other outbuildings, the smoke from their 
hundred chimneys curling toward the skies like incense 
from some mighty amphitheatre of religious worship, in- 
dicating the life and activity within. 

The cultivated area extends upward on the mountain 
sides to points where the declivity is too steep for man 
or beast to work. Here the mountain forest begins and 
the smooth but steep and verdant enclosures marking the 



36 



fott tl^es. *" ^^^^^To; 

derXt T^Ll C S C r ' S ha ' f "* ^ - ^r- 
houses facin/rS £ i ^ H™ ** '' tS ** 
highways from the northeast ^ 7 " ^"^ ' WO 
'wo others on the southwes e x l di I *** d ' V " Se 
of the valley. Two mode! h!ff S ** eM ' re Ien ^ h 

houses of the vhWrs ? nSe amon & the quiet 

lowers of John W X \T ?""? t0gether the fo '" 
gathered in h"s ear 1 m ( " Se f °' d the Linns were 
and the othe^LTS fTr t ^ * **»* 
of Jolm Knox, who true to T 3r the disci P les 

only Davids P^' Z i^nT^ U™' ** 
profane instrument than the tin 1 , " "° more 

Upon a hilltop near by and " *"?*?** '""ing fork. 
fttle ene,osure P ^V™%£«£ f^ «• « 
tery with its upright marhl. it? - , V '" ag:e cera «- 
son of Coneord who f ™,n m tt ' t e "^ ° f ™ u * a 
away lands to visit the V " me returns fr °™ far- 

r y on .J: Ktsus'-**-- dro » a 

Places of dear departed ones *" ' aSt restin S 

gret L h n e dsT;e be hu r n sts S ZTT" '° "" "»-* *« 
dearfy like a P > ~ ^ 1 na ToT" ^ m ° re 
qnately deseribe its beautyf no J£ £** ™ "*" 
charm. It i s like a ,„„ . . P nc " fi tly portray its 

and two in with s« n Pamtmg> . tWenty miks 'n 4th 
alternating h» I and 1,1 m ° Unta ' n fra ™ eS ' or with Its 

— i »: "L^w^ f , orest e ~ 

«-* *- early spring iT^ £ » 



THE LAND OF THEIR ADOPTION. 37 

of emerald green reaches from creek to mountain crest, 
while in October the mountains are a mass of golden 
flame, and the valley is dotted with wooded patches rich 
in a thousand gorgeous hues, and arched by a sky which 
rivals that of Italy in cerulean tints. Pink and red and 
scarlet — brown and saffron and yellow — revel in all their 
native luxuriance, interspersed by the light and deep 
shades of many varieties of mountain evergreens, which, 
as if in envy of their more gorgeously attired sisters, 
court the favor of the gentle zephyr by lading the atmos- 
phere with fragrant terebinthine odors and exhilarating 
health-giving perfumes. 

It is one of the places where nature surpasses her ever- 
beautiful handiwork and points us with no uncertain 
finger up to nature's God. Let it not be supposed that the 
beauties of Path Valley are willingly or wittingly exag- 
gerated because of the charm of early association. The 
White Mountains, the Alleghenies, the Continental Di- 
vide, the Sierras of California, the world-famed Yo- 
semite, the glacier-covered Alps of Switzerland and the 
Tyrol, each and all have their fascination for the human 
soul which is open to behold the sublime, the awe inspir- 
ing, the magnificent, the rugged grandeur, the pictur- 
esque beauty of nature in her noblest forms, and one 
should not abate one tittle from the praise bestowed on 
them by the traveler ; but for bucolic simplicity, rustic 
beauty, delicacy of outline, simple picturesqueness and 
perfection of detail, Path Valley as seen from the point 
named is not surpassed by anything we have seen. 

The quality of the masterpieces of the great artists is 
not measured by their size nor by a wealth of coloring no 



38 THE CLAN LINN. 



matter how harmonious, nor by violent contrasts, but by 
a subtle indefinable charm which pervades the whole, an 
ensemble which defies description but fills the soul with 
a sense of harmony and perfection until the beholder, 
overcome by their beauty, stands in silence and reverence 
before them. And if this can be said of paintings, the 
work of human hands, with how much greater force 
must it be said of the works of Deity. But the observer 
must have in his soul a true conception of the beautiful 
or it cannot be realized. The mirror which is not well 
quicksilvered will give no true reflection, and the bell 
which has not in it the proper components of metal will 
give no music. 

The highest point in the valley, (and the ascent from 
either end is scarcely noticeable), is four miles from the 
Knob, and this is worthy of note because it is the water- 
shed between the Potomac, fifty miles south, and the 
"Blue Juniata," thirty miles to the northwest. Two 
streams there find their sources, one called the West 
Conococheague, and the other the Tuscarora, both Indian 
names, the latter that of a once famous tribe of Indians 
who have here as elsewhere bequeathed to us forever 
their names in mountain, stream and valley. Logan, 
the celebrated Mingo chief, once lived almost within view 
of the summit of the Knob. 

The valley was called "Path Valley," tradition says, be- 
cause an Indian trail, called the "Tuscarora Path," ex- 
tended through it, connecting the Potomac and Juniata 
rivers. The race of the red man is run, but so long as 
the mountains here stand and the streams flow, he will be 
remembered by the names he gave them. As children 
we heard with rapt attention the stories of their unequal 



THE LAND OF THEIR ADOPTION. 39 

contest with the white man and pitied while we feared 
them. The names of such places in the adjoining moun- 
tains as Fort Littleton, Fort Loudon, Burnt Cabins, and 
Bloody Run indicate the terrors of the Indian wars. 

There are but two entrances into Path Valley from 
the outside world without crossing the mountains, one 
from the north through a narrow defile called "The 
Narrows," a break in the Tuscarora Mountain chain so 
narrow that there is scarcely room for a wagon-road be- 
side the Tuscarora creek which passes out at this point. 
The mountains on each side of this pass are so precipit- 
ous that few persons ever dare to scale them. The val- 
ley is entered from the south by a wider pass through 
which flows the West Conococheague on its way to the 
Potomac. Between these two passes, a distance of 
twenty miles, there is no break in the mountain chains 
enclosing the valley. Railroads have penetrated the 
country north and south to each entrance, but the smoke 
and grime of locomotive engines have not yet defiled its 
pure atmosphere while they scream and bluster outside 
as though enraged at the ban put upon them by nature. 

Such was the valley to which James Widney came in 
1784 to be followed four years later by his brother-in-law 
Hugh Linn, and which has drawn to it from the earliest 
days when it was known to civilized man, a race of al- 
most pure Scotch Irish blood. The bare recital of their 
names is a warrant for their ancestry. Among them are 
Wallace, Campbell, Loughridge, Maclay, Erwin, Murray, 
McKenzie, McLaughlin, McKim, McElhenny, McMullin, 
Crawford, Maxwell, Robertson, McClure, Ferguson, in 
and about Concord, while in the valley below are many 
more such names characteristic of their origin. 



CHAPTER VII. 

"And this our life exempt from public haunt, 
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 
Sermons in stones, and good in everything." — Shakespeare. 

^HE domestic life and customs of our pioneer an- 
■*■ cestors deserve some notice, if we, and especially 
the younger members of our families, would properly ap- 
preciate their struggles and hardships. They were heroes 
in the highest sense of the word, and their deeds of valor 
and suffering deserve no slight meed of praise. Men and 
women who left homes of comfort and often of luxury 
along the Atlantic seaboard or on foreign shores and 
penetrated the wilds of the Blue Mountains and the Al- 
leghenies in the 18th century, or the valleys of the Ohio 
and Mississippi rivers in the early part of the last cen- 
tury, placed their posterity and our country at large under 
an obligation which we cannot repay. It was they more 
than any one else who laid securely the foundations of 
our great republic. They opened up highways through 
the forests, explored the rivers and lakes, crossed the 
trackless prairies and made known to the world behind 
them the immense riches of our country. 

Let us first glance at the home of the pioneer, the 
centre of domestic life, the scene of family activity from 
which have sprung many of the greatest minds of our 
country. It was in nearly all cases a simple cabin about 
twenty feet square and one story high. There were three 
classes of cabins, the first built of round logs and known 

40 



PIONEER LIFE. 41 



simply as the "log cabin." The second class consisted 
of cabins built of logs chipped on two sides, the chipped 
sides being laid together, and known as the "chipped log 
cabin," while the third class consisted of logs hewn 
square, and called the "hewn log cabin." In the simple 
log cabin built only of round logs, great spaces were nec- 
essarily left between the logs which were filled in with 
small pieces of wood known as "chinking' and plastered 
over with clay to keep out the rain and cold. Nearly all 
cabins in the backwoods and early settlements were of 
this kind. 

The typical log cabin consisted of three rooms. One 
with its big outside chimney was a combined kitchen, 
dining and living room, having one door leading outside 
and a small window opposite the door. This room oc- 
cupied one-half the floor space, being about ten by twenty 
feet in size. A partition separated it from two sleeping 
rooms which occupied the other half of the floor space. 
The sleeping rooms had no exit except into the kitchen, 
but each had a small window about eighteen inches 
square closed by a solid shutter in the absence of glass. 
One bed room was occupied by the parents and by the 
small children who slept in a "trundle" bed, which, when 
not in use was trundled under the high and larger bed of 
the parents. The other bedroom was given to the girls 
of the family and to the occasional guest. The boys 
slept in the loft to which they climbed by a ladder or by 
means of pegs driven into the logs one above the other. 

The floor was made of split logs called "puncheons" 
laid with the flat side up, while thinner pieces were used 
for partitions and roof, unless the settler was fortunate 



42 THE CLAN LINN. 



enough to be within reach of a primitive saw mill where 
planks or rough boards could be procured. 

The door had a wooden latch on the inside to which a 
leather thong or cord was attached and passed through a 
hole in the door to the outside. This thong was drawn 
in at night, especially in case of danger, as there was no 
lock. The latch string left out (particularly at night) 
indicated good will toward the comer, and hence the ex- 
pression still sometimes used in the invitation of friends, 
"The latch string is always out." A story is told of a 
very pious backwoodsman who purposely left his latch 
string out at night when a band of warlike Indians was 
threatening the settlements. Commending himself and 
family to God's protection he retired as usual. Not long 
after, footsteps and whisperings were heard outside the 
cabin, the latch was lifted, the door opened and several 
Indians stealthily entered. One, evidently a leader or 
chief, said to his companions, "We must go away, these 
are good people and our friends or the latch string would 
not be out." They went out, quietly closing the door 
behind them, but the smoking ruins of other cabins in the 
same neighborhood the next morning, proved the hatred 
of the midnight visitors for their white enemies. 

The cabin fire place was six or even eight feet wide and 
three or four feet deep, and laid with flag stones when 
they could be had. In this was the back-log, a foot or 
more in diameter, the chief purpose of it being to retain 
the fire, while smaller pieces of wood placed in front of 
it served for heating the room and for cooking, as stoves 
were not then known. 

The cabin door always stood open, except at night and 



PIONEER LIFE. 43 



in cold weather, in order to furnish light, as the small 
window was often insufficient for that purpose and with- 
out glass, which in those days was a rare and expensive 
article. 

Matches are now found in every dwelling, however 
humble. At the time we speak of they had not been in- 
vented. By the big fire place, in a crevice between the 
stones, always left for that purpose, was a "tinder box" 
containing flint, a piece of steel and some punk or tow. 
By striking the steel on the flint sparks were produced, 
and these, being caught on the punk or tow, gave a 
smoldering fire which by dint of blowing was enlarged 
and then brought in contact with scrapings or fine shav- 
ings of wood until a blaze was started. 

The fire in the back-log mentioned above was kept 
alive day and night, so as to obviate the necessity of so 
much labor as was involved in making a fresh one daily. 
Light was obtained at night for reading or sewing from 
the blazing pine knots kept at hand for that purpose. As 
the pioneer had few books and often little time for read- 
ing, except in winter, the absence of a good light was 
not so much felt. Later the tallow candle or so-called 
"tallow dip," made without molds by dipping candle 
wick many times into melted tallow and allowing the ad- 
hering tallow to solidify, was used, but that was a luxury, 
and school boys all read of Abraham Lincoln studying, 
while a boy and young man, by the light from the fire 
place. 

So soon as the cabin was completed came the task of 
preparing the ground for a crop of potatoes, Indian corn 
and possibly some rye, which constituted the first cereals. 



44 THE CLAN LINN. 



Agriculture was followed in the most primitive manner, 
because of the lack of the implements found only in more 
thickly populated districts. The ground was turned over 
or rather scratched by means of a "bull-tongue" plow to 
a depth of two or three inches. Later a plow was used 
with a wooden mold-board, the cast iron mold-board not 
yet being made. Corn was planted by means of a sharp- 
ened stick called a "dibble," rye and flaxseed were sown 
"broadcast," that is, by hand, and the branches of a dead 
tree, preferably a thorn tree, were dragged over the 
ground in place of a harrow to cover the seed. 

Corn was parched to make it dry and brittle, and then 
ground or crushed on a stone having a depression in it, 
by means of another stone, pestle shaped. This was a 
slow and laborious process, and grain was sometimes car- 
ried on the shoulder for miles to a primitive mill which 
would now be a curiosity. The grist mill was sometimes 
not more than ten feet square, and consisted of two rooms 
not always enclosed but covered by a slab roof, the upper 
room containing the one pair of stones for grinding, and 
the lower room the meal chest. Outside was the water 
wheel, sometimes propelled by a stream of water coming 
through a long hollow log laid at an angle on the side of 
the ravine in which the mill was situated. Corn meal 
mixed with water to which a little salt had been added 
was molded into cakes, then covered with hot ashes and 
coals in the fireplace until baked, and formed a staple 
article of food. 

A crop of flax was also raised as soon as possible, from 
which the family clothing was to be made. In and about 
the little village of Concord may yet be seen stowed away 



PIONEER LIFE. 45 



in old garrets machinery for preparing flax for the loom. 
When the bark or sheath of the stalk had become brittle 
by being exposed to dampness it was hackled, that is, 
drawn through the long-pointed teeth of an instrument 
to separate the fibre from the sheath. The fibre or tow 
was then mounted on a distaff, and by means of the spin- 
ning wheel made into a coarse thread fit to be woven into 
a fabric for clothing and other purposes. 

As time passed a few sheep were procured and their 
wool converted by a similar process into wearing apparel 
for cold weather. Geese, ducks and chickens were also 
added to the family outfit and their down and feathers 
utilized for bedding, while their eggs were invaluable for 
food. The pelts of sheep and wild animals, bears, deer, 
foxes and other game, were always carefully tanned and 
constituted a great addition to the stores of the pioneer 
for the winter. 

Post office facilties did not exist for the pioneer. At 
the time of which we write, 1789, the nearest postoffice 
to the Linns was Carlisle, thirty miles away, and reached 
only by trails over two mountains. The mail service of 
the United States was yet in its infancy even in thickly 
populated districts. President Washington appointed 
Samuel Osgood the first Postmaster-General in 1789. In 
that year there were only seventy-five postoffices in the 
United States. Letter postage was six cents for thirty 
miles, increasing according to the distance to twenty-five 
cents for 450 miles or more. 

An inquiry made of the Post Office Department at 
Washington shows that the post office at Concord was not 



46 THE CLAN LINN. 



established until well on in the last century. A letter 
from the Postmaster-General reads as follows: 

"In reply to your inquiry I have to say that the post 
office at Concord, Franklin county, Pa., was established 
January 16th, 1811, and that Edward W. Doyle was first 
P. M., and James Wilson the second." 

The mail service established at that time was once in 
two weeks between Fannettsburg and Mifflintown, and 
this was twenty-three years after the settlement of the 
Linns. The pioneer's letter was given to some one to 
mail, who might be going in the direction of the distant 
post office, and sometimes passed through two or three 
hands in as many weeks before reaching the office, un- 
less some one was fortunately discovered who was mak- 
ing the entire journey. Envelopes, ruled paper and post- 
age stamps were not then in use and the paper must be 
so written on that in folding it and attaching the seal, the 
writing would not be seen. 

The newspaper of that day was a very small affair, 
generally about fifteen by twenty inches in size and con- 
sisting of two leaves. It was published once a week, 
sometimes once a month, and the news it contained was 
very meagre and often very stale as all means of com- 
munication were slow and uncertain. It rarely found its 
way into the backwoods on account of the lack of mail 
facilities, and when by chance a copy reached the remote 
districts it was cherished as a treasure and passed from 
neighbor to neighbor with jealous care. All were print- 
ed on hand presses, and as much time was necessary to 
strike off a hundred copies as is now necessary to print a 
hundred thousand. 



PIONEER LIFE. 47 



No school existed for the pioneer, and it was only when 
a settlement was formed that some one was hired by pri- 
vate subscription to give children instruction in the 
"Three Rs," Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. This 
was done generally only during the three winter months, 
as the presence and assistance of children was demanded 
by the multifarious duties of home life during the rest of 
the year. The public school system was not introduced 
in Pennsylvania until 1834, long after pioneer days. 

There were no churches nor Sunday-schools, and even 
that almost ubiquitous individual, the "circuit rider," as 
he was called in the latter part of the eighteenth century, 
was rarely seen as he plodded his way on horseback 
through the almost trackless forests, his wardrobe occu- 
pying one end of the saddle bags and his library, (a Bible 
and hymn book with some tracts) the other end. He was 
easily satisfied with earthly goods, willing to sleep on a 
cabin floor, to eat the coarsest fare, to face storm and 
tempest, to ford streams at the risk of life, that he might 
preach the "Living Word" in season and out of season, 
whenever and wherever he could find a few people will- 
ing to listen to his message. But they were often sowing 
seed which was to grow and bring forth fruit, thirty, 
sixty and a hundred fold. 

The first roads were trails through the forest, often 
blazed in such a way as to indicate the place to which 
they led. As already seen, Path Valley was threaded by 
the "Tuscarora Trail." Locomotion was on foot or 
horseback, and the individual pioneer was compelled to 
widen his trail as time went by, to fit it for any kind of 
vehicle to communicate with a settlement. In winter 



48 THE CLAN LINN. 



when the snows were heavy he was sometimes a prisoner 
in his cabin for weeks. His needs, however, were few in 
his simple life and he learned to get along without much 
outside assistance. 

The one article which he was compelled to get aside 
from ammunition for his gun was salt, and he made long 
journeys to a settlement to buy or barter for it. Money 
was a rare article, but he could always barter the pelts of 
wild animals to the traders for such necessaries. Sugar 
he made in the forest from the sap of the sugar maple 
tree into which holes were bored in the early spring when 
the sap was "running." By inserting a piece of elder 
about a foot long, from which the pith had been removed, 
the sap of the sugar maple was collected in a trough made 
by scooping out a piece of log. It was then boiled in a 
large kettle until a syrup was obtained which could not 
be surpassed as a relish for cornbread. Longer boiling 
reduced the syrup to a sugar by further evaporation of 
the water in it. 

An axe, a saw and an augur generally constituted the 
pioneer's outfit of tools. He made wooden hayforks and 
"split brooms" as well as his furniture, put oiled paper 
in his windows, in lieu of glass, to keep out the cold and 
rain, and in a hundred ways necessity was found to be the 
mother of invention. 

When sickness came to him or his family he was sore 
distressed for he had no doctor to consult, pain must be 
endured and death faced as bravely as possible. Then 
he turned to such remedies as nature offered and experi- 
ence dictated. Herb and shrub and bark of tree were 
placed under tribute, as well as water, cold and hot, a 



PIONEER LIFE. 49 



remedy too much neglected even now. The attics of 
some of the cabins became in course of time veritable 
apothecary shops and contained a host of remedies which 
in efficacy would vie with the preparations now in use. 
Among them suspended from the rafters or stored away 
in nooks and corners could be found the seed of flax, 
mustard, pumpkin and watermelon; the bark of wild 
cherry, slippery elm, willow and dogwood; the root of 
elecampane, blackberry, mayapple, sassafras and Virginia 
snake root, as well as peppermint, pennyroyal, thyme, 
sage, tansy, teaberry, hoarhound, hops, calamus, juniper 
berries, boneset, garlic, ergot, turpentine and many other 
things of less importance. 

When the angel of death brooded over his lonely cabin 
his cup of bitterness was full. His own hands must pre- 
pare the loved one for burial, must make that which could 
scarce be called a coffin, must dig in the wild woods a 
grave, and transport thither the corpse for lonely burial, 
accompanied perhaps by the remaining members of his 
family only. Such occasions, however, nearly always 
summoned some one to his assistance, for one pioneer 
would travel miles through the forest in darkness or tem- 
pest to help another in such an hour of need. "A touch 
of misery makes the whole world kin." They stood 
shoulder to shoulder in repelling danger and misfortune, 
and though the culture and refinement of settled com- 
munities might have been lacking, there was an honest, 
simple-hearted, whole-souled hospitality which marked 
every household and crowned every hearthstone. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

&jmrte anfc Snreatumfl of Jfumwr £tfe. 

"Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife, 
Their sober wishes never learned to stray; 
Along the cool, sequestered vale of life 
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way." — Gray. 

SECLUDED as was the life of our forefathers, we 
must not suppose that existence was devoid of 
pleasure. Aside from that companionship obtained in the 
visitation of each other's homes, where, in the absence of 
the newspaper, social, religious and political discussion 
prevailed, there were frequent opportunities for indulging 
in the spice of life. The presence of a theatre, concert 
troupe or circus, is not the only means of entertainment 
for a people, nor by any means the most desirable. 

Hunting and fishing were perennial sports (if sports 
they might be called), for much dependence was placed 
upon the products of the chase in furnishing the larder. 
Of small game there was an abundance everywhere. 
Squirrels, rabbits, quail, grouse (pheasants) and wild 
turkeys had not yet learned to fear their arch enemy, 
man, and were easily taken by means of guns and snares. 

For trapping wild turkeys a covered pen of poles or 
light logs was built and a depression in the earth at one 
side made large enough for a turkey to pass in. Corn 
was scattered over the ground nearby and leading up to 
the depression and into the pen in which a liberal supply 
was also placed. Following the line of corn the turkeys 
would pass through the opening into the pen, but once 

50 



SPORTS AND RECREATION. 51 

inside were too stupid to return the same way, always 
looking up for an exit. Snaring and trapping rabbits was 
the especial sport of the boys. Squirrels were always fat 
in the autumn and they, with pheasants and turkeys, fell 
an easy prey to the rifle of the keen-eyed hunter. 

Bears and deer were the great prizes of the hunter in 
the eighteenth and early part of the last century, and the 
born hunter was always ready to drop everything for an 
exciting chase. He kept for this purpose a brace or more 
of hounds. So soon as it became known that a bear was 
in the neighboring mountains, the trail was located with 
the assistance of the dogs, and though by this time Bruin 
might be miles away, hunter and dogs started in a mad 
race over and among rocks, through thickets, up and 
over the mountains in hot pursuit. Dog as well as hunter 
seemed to know the value of the prey. 

No narrow-chested, weak-kneed disciple of Nimrod 
need venture on such a chase. It required an iron con- 
stitution and the endurance of an Indian to travel all day 
long at break-neck speed, perhaps without food or drink, 
to overtake the quarry, and if night came on before doing 
so, it must be spent, perchance, lying on the mountain 
awaiting another day which might be equally taxing on 
human strength. And what a scene of rejoicing when 
success crowned the labor and perseverance of the hunt- 
ers. The dogs were wild with excitement and delight, 
and as the big game was carried down the precipitous 
side of the mountain to some point where a horse could 
be procured to transport it home, men and boys from the 
surrounding country congregated, all envious of the 
prowess which had been so well rewarded. What a fine 



S2 THE CLAN LINN. 



bear skin as a trophy and for future sale or use ! What 
superb steaks for the coming winter, when other meat 
might be scarce ! Old and young alike looked on the 
bold and successful hunter with a feeling akin to rever- 
ence. 

Bear hunting was always attended with more or less 
danger, for a wounded bear will turn upon and attack 
the hunter, and unless the dogs are fearless in such case 
he may be killed. John Linn, while pursuing a bear made 
an effort to head him off and thus got between the bear 
and the dogs. At a distance of twenty yards he shot the 
bear but not in a vital spot. The enraged beast rushed 
viciously upon him, giving him only time to pick up a 
stone with which he struck him on the head. He suc- 
ceeded in keeping clear of the animal's powerful paws, a 
single blow of which is sufficient to kill a man or dog, but 
in doing so the brute bit his left arm badly. Fortunately 
the dogs coming up saved him while another hunter kill- 
ed the shaggy beast. 

The fleet and wily deer was hunted in a different way, 
and the sport, though less exciting, was full of interest. 
Men were stationed at points where it was known deer 
were in the habit of passing, while others started the game 
perhaps at some far distant point, and if it chanced to 
come near to the secreted hunters could be shot. Springs 
in some localities impregnated with salt and called "deer 
licks," were favorite resorts for the graceful animal, and 
hunters concealing themselves in the bushes to the lee- 
ward of such places were able to shoot them unawares. 
Hugh Linn 2d told of an exciting adventure a hunter 
once had at such a place. He had wounded a buck which 



SPORTS AND RECREATION. 53 



he started to pursue when the animal turned suddenly, 
determined to impale him on its massive antlers. The 
hunter ran behind a large tree and was followed round 
and round the tree by the buck which kept him in terror 
for several hours as he did not have time to load his old- 
fashioned, muzzle-loading flint-lock rifle. Finally the 
buck, which had been badly stunned more than hurt, 
seemed disgusted by the chase and turning away into the 
forest escaped. 

The "Shooting Match" was an occasion of special in- 
terest to the frontiersman. Men, who depended for their 
subsistence largely on wild game, were likely to be "dead 
shots" with a rifle. The favorite gun of those days was 
not made for beauty, but for utility. It had a long and 
heavy barrel and was a muzzle loader, carrying a bullet 
about the size of a small cherry. The owner bought his 
lead in bulk at the nearest settlement and made his own 
bullets. These he carried in a leather or buckskin pouch 
made for the purpose, or sometimes in his pocket. On 
the day appointed for the shooting match, men came long 
distances, each bringing his pet gun, resolved if possible 
to carry away one of the much-coveted prizes, these con- 
sisting perhaps of a powder horn mounted with silver, a 
hunting belt, a turkey or some other more or less valuable 
article. 

There were always a few among the many competi- 
tors in whom popular interest centered because of their 
well-known ability as hunters and marksmen. Skill in 
shooting depended on practice, a good eye, a steady arm, 
and a fine mental equilibrium which was not easily dis- 
turbed by any excitement. When the time for shooting 



54 THE CLAN LINN. 



arrived the ground was paced off a distance of a hundred 
and fifty or two hundred yards, lots were cast for the 
order in which each should shoot, the prize announced, 
an umpire with an assistant stationed where the target 
could be readily observed, and as each bullet left its mark 
a wooden peg was inserted in the hole. 

After all had shot, a second and then a third trial was 
afforded. All did not shoot for every prize, for the more 
valuable the prize the further removed was the target, 
and those who were not "crack shots" were contented 
with the shorter range, while the expert marksman scorn- 
ed to take advantage of one who acknowledged himself 
inferior in marksmanship. 

But there was time for other sports between the trials 
for skill in shooting. There were foot races, jumping, 
wrestling and other minor sports among the crowd who 
had come as spectators. Thus the day quickly passed and 
all returned home to relate to wives, children and neigh- 
bors the results of the day's sport. 

Fishing with nets and spearing fish, popularly called 
"gigging," were less exciting but very enjoyable pastimes, 
while helping also to replenish the larder. The fish-gig 
consisted of several barbed iron prongs securely fastened 
to a handle five or six feet long. A half-dozen men would 
combine for the sport and first procure from the moun- 
tains yellow pine, rich in turpentine. This was split in 
pieces two or three feet long and about an inch in thick- 
ness. The pieces were then tied together in bundles or 
fagots, four or five feet in length. A dark night when the 
water in the streams was clear was chosen for the expedi- 
tion. Two or three of the party were selected to carry 



SPORTS AND RECREATION. 55 

the lighted fagots and as many more took the gigs, while 
a couple were delegated to carry the fish. 

Proceeding against the current all moved abreast, the 
strong light from the yellow pine fagots illuminating 
clearly every object in the stream. Fish attracted by the 
light would lie still on the bottom and were readily spear- 
ed. In the early part of the last century, when they were 
plentiful, there being no dams to prevent their ascending 
the streams, a half-barrel could be secured in an evening. 
Black fish, catfish, suckers and eels were the varieties 
usually caught. In order to facilitate an amicable division 
of the spoils at the close of the sport, they were placed in 
as many piles on the ground as there were fishermen and 
lots cast for them. 

Musters were held at times appointed by the authori- 
ties for military exercises, and all able-bodied men were 
required to attend. It is needless to say that, interested 
as all patriotic citizens were to fit themselves for military 
duties, their attention was often diverted by exercises 
not on the program for the day. Those were the days 
when small distilleries were found at frequent intervals 
throughout the mountain districts, and no settlement 
was supposed to be complete unless it had one. As 
might be supposed, under such circumstances some men 
indulged too freely in "fire water" and then became 
belligerent ; result — bloody noses and bruised faces, 
necessitating the interference of cooler heads to quell 
the disturbance. 

The Fourth of July was an occasion of great import- 
ance in the settlements, in later days, to old and young. 
Many of the sires of the Revolution were still living, 



56 THE CLAN LINN. 



and every child heard recited stories of Paul Revere, 
Mollie Pitcher, Mad Anthony Wayne, Paul Jones, York- 
town, Valley Forge, and other people and places made 
immortal in the dark and gloomy days when liberty was 
more highly prized than life itself. 

The people met by common consent to celebrate the 
natal day of independence. A spacious platform was 
erected in some convenient locality in the woods, gaily 
decorated with evergreens, and, thither from church or 
school house, a procession of men, women and children 
wended its way to the inspiring music of fife and drum, 
while the mountains and valleys echoed and re-echoed 
the strains of "Yankee Doodle," which found a com- 
panion piece after the War of 1812 in the "Star Spang- 
led Banner." The Declaration of Independence was then 
read to the people as they sat on the moss-covered ground 
or on seats extemporized for the occasion, addresses 
were delivered by prominent citizens, recitations were 
given by school children, interspersed with singing, and 
the exercises closed with a generous collation of pie, 
cake, butter and rolls, gingerbread, etc., all washed 
down by pure spring water, or the old-fashioned home- 
made "small beer" of "ye olden times," which never 
muddled any one's brains. 

In the early spring, when the sap in the sugar maple 
trees began to flow, they were busy making maple 
syrup and maple sugar, which formed important articles 
of diet during the whole year. (We have already de- 
scribed the method of collecting the sap and making 
syrup and sugar in Chapter VII.) During the summer 
the young people were sent out to gather wild berries 



SPORTS AND RECREATION. 57 

and fruits, which were made into jams or jellies, or dried 
for winter use. Blackberries, raspberries and strawber- 
ries grew wild in abundance, and on the mountains whor- 
tleberries, popularly called "huckleberries," could be had 
for the picking. Famous pies were made of all these 
berries so long as the season lasted. 

When the autumn frosts came, hickory nuts (shell- 
barks), walnuts and chestnuts were gathered by the 
bushel and stored in attics and garrets for consumption 
in the long winter evenings, when they were cracked 
on the great hearthstones or roasted in the coals, then 
eaten and digested by stomachs to which indigestion, 
pain and colic were total strangers. In later days, when 
the settlement stores received nuts as barter for goods, 
they were often carried thither and given in exchange 
for writing paper, school books and ink. Economy, 
however, forced many boys and girls to manufacture 
their own ink, which was done by expressing the juice 
of the poke berry. 

An event of special interest and importance to the 
young men and women, was apple-butter making, for 
then new acquaintances were made and old friendships 
increased, while mirth and jollity reigned supreme as 
ever did Bacchus at Grecian carnival. Picture to your- 
self a dozen young people of both sexes, congenial spir- 
its, invited to such an evening entertainment. The 
autumn frosts have come, the golden harvest of fruit 
has been gathered, the verbal invitations sent out for an 
evening of combined work and pleasure, and the big 
copper kettle, filled with luscious, appetizing cider, 
hangs over a blazing fire on the hearth, or in a cozy nook 



58 THE CLAN LINN. 

outside the cabin, with no roof but the fretted vault of 
heaven, from which the stars look down in unclouded 
beauty. 

Baskets of apples are in every corner of the big kit- 
chen, which is lighted by the blazing pine knots on the 
hearth ; the bashful lads and timid lassies come dropping 
in, greet each other in rustic style, doff their wraps, and 
are ready for work. Notice how they pair off, as if 
governed by instinct in the choice of mates, a pair to 
each basket, and then the work and the fun of the even- 
ing begin. The hearty, care-free laugh rings out mer- 
rily ; the animated jest, the spirited repartee, the flashing 
eye, the arching brow and flushed cheek reveal the ex- 
tent and depth of the wounds which Cupid's unseen darts 
are inflicting. The pared and cut apples are then added 
to the boiling cider, turns are taken at "stirring," sport 
and frolic indulged in by the now idle members of the 
group, and the hours fly quickly by until the butter is 
"done." Then the girls are escorted to their homes by 
the young men, all eager for a repetition of the night's 
entertainment at some other neighbor's house. 

The nuts and fruits all gathered, the apple-butter made, 
the butchering done and the meat for winter "cured" by 
packing down or smoking over a smoldering fire, the 
extra duties of life with the settler, so far as they per- 
tained to provision for the long winter, were at an end, 
and the young folks were free to indulge in the outdoor 
sports of winter. Skating, coasting, sleighing, fishing 
through holes cut in the ice, or "stunning" fish by strik- 
ing the ice over them with a pole axe and then cutting 
through for them, snaring or trapping wild animals, all 



SPORTS AND RECREATION. 59 

constituted means of enjoyment. For those who had a 
taste for reading, the long winter evenings afforded 
abundant opportunity. One of the boys or girls would 
read aloud while the rest of the family were engaged in 
sewing, knitting, hackling flax, shelling corn by hand, 
or such other domestic duties as might be required. 
Thus turns were taken at reading and working and 
useful lessons learned in both. 

Thanks to the then limited output of books and papers, 
only those of real value were to be had. The art of 
printing was one of the greatest boons which ever came 
to humanity, but the ease and cheapness with which 
books are thrown from the press today has resulted in 
such a mass of illy prepared and worthless material being 
placed before us, that time is worse than wasted in read- 
ing it. Better twenty well selected books than a thous- 
and taken up promiscuously. 

The shelf of the intelligent pioneer and early settler 
(for library he did not have) often contained, besides 
the Bible, such books as Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, 
Aesop's Fables, Plutarch's Lives, Essays of Bacon and 
Addison, Milton's Paradise Lost, Cook's Voyages, 
Robinson Crusoe, Rollin's Ancient History, Fox's Book 
of Martyrs, and not infrequently a copy of Shakespeare 
or Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding, with 
some work on Arithmetic, Geometry and Surveying 
bound in one volume. This was the sort of intellectual 
diet which did not enervate the mind, and such books 
were read and re-read until they became a part of the 
individual and served him in good stead in every walk 
of life. 



6o THE CLAN LINN. 



The "Husking Bee" was an incident of autumn, and 
generally held on moonlight nights. Neighbors met by 
appointment in the cornfield of one of their number and 
a dozen pairs of ready hands quickly stripped the crop 
of ripened corn from the yellow husk, after which all 
gathered at the house or cabin of the beneficiary to par- 
take of a generous repast, served by his good wife and 
the neighboring women. 

When the logs and timbers were ready for a new 
cabin or house, a "Raising Bee" or "Frolic" was called, 
and many hands made light work of what would have 
been otherwise an insuperable task to the lone settler, 
each man vieing with his fellows in feats of strength in 
lifting heavy logs into position. 

In later days, when private schools were established in 
the settlements, for three or four months of the winter 
season, the "Spelling Bee" afforded an opportunity for 
the youth of both sexes to meet each other in friendly 
rivalry for a display of skill in spelling. Boys and girls, 
young men and women from neighboring settlements 
met at the school-house appointed for the contest, often 
going miles on foot or in sleds cushioned with hay and 
straw, the members of each school anxious to head the 
list of the best spellers in the country. "Early candle 
light" was the time set by churches and other assemblies 
for their evening meetings in primitive days. The teacher 
of the school at which the "Spelling Bee" was held select- 
ed two persons to choose "sides," lots were cast for the 
first choice, and then the best spellers, in so far as they 
were known, were selected and took their places, until all 
were chosen. The words given by the teacher were 



SPORTS AND RECREATION. 61 

spelled alternately by each side, all the contestants 
standing, and every one missing a word sat down, while 
the one who did not misspell any word was given the 
credit of being the best speller, a most worthy and envi- 
able distinction. 

"Quilting Bees" gave our great-grandmothers much 
employment and afforded an excellent opportunity for 
receiving and imparting neighborhood and general infor- 
mation. The newspaper, as we have seen, was a rarity, 
and in the absence of news from the great world beyond 
the mountains and the sea, time was found for the dis- 
cussion of local events. Tongues, it may be admitted, 
sometimes vied with needles in rapidity of movement, 
and, unlike the latter, sometimes grew sharper by much 
use; but gentleness, charity and love were more pre- 
dominant characteristics among them than among many 
who today occupy gilded drawing-rooms and wear 
scented vestments. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Aturtljer lj?artfy0fcm* lEaft att& Another 
Altar Hirttttb. 

"From scenes like these old Scotia's grandeur springs, 
That makes her loved at home, revered abroad; 
Princes and lords are but the breath of Kings, 
An honest man's the noblest work of God." — Burns. 

HUGH LINN doubtless enjoyed the first days of 
the family reunion mentioned in Chapter V, but his 
was a temperament that could not long brook idleness, 
and soon we find him spying out this new land of milk 
and honey. Stretching away to the northeast of James 
Widney's location, like the finger of a glove, was an 
extension of Path Valley of small dimensions, now 
known by the uneuphemistic name of Horse Valley. It 
had great natural beauty, was well watered, and con- 
tained a remarkably fine growth of timber. 

Thither he wended his way, and following an old 
trail, another Indian path through the heart of the valley, 
he rested by a beautiful, never-failing spring, still flow- 
ing with perennial life, which was gushing out of the 
southern slope of the Tuscarora Mountain, and deter- 
mined to make that spot his future home. There he 
would be protected from the keen north winds of winter, 
while the sun would give him its full measure of light 
and heat all day long. 

Soon his axe was heard felling trees for the double 
purpose of making a clearing for planting crops and 

62 



HEARTHSTONE AND ALTAR. 63 

furnishing logs for a cabin, which would be the tempo- 
rary home until one more commodious could be built. 
It was in this cabin (such a one as is described in Chap- 
ter VII) that we find the Linns in the autumn of 1789. 
Twelve months had gone by since they had settled in 
the New World, and they were now accustomed to their 
strange surroundings. 

Their children were growing rapidly. In the midst of 
this wild country they were developing a spirit of self- 
reliance and independence which was of the greatest 
value to them ever after. Young as they were, they 
were being trained to habits of industry and economy, 
and to a spirit of enterprise. They were learning to 
grapple with the stern realities of practical life. For- 
tunately for them, their parents were imbued with prin- 
ciples of sterling worth. Life had in it something for 
them more than the philosophy of Epicurus, "Let us eat 
and drink, for tomorrow we die." It was not for them a 
"fleeting show for man's illusion given." With Long- 
fellow they believed 

"Life is real, life is earnest, 

And the grave is not its goal ; 
'Dust thou art, to dust returnest' 

Was not spoken of the soul. 

"Not enjoyment and not sorrow, 
Is our destined end and way; 
But to live that each tomorrow 
Find us farther than today." 

Let us as kinsmen accept the liberty always accorded 
friend and traveler in pioneer days, and look within the 



64 THE CLAN LINN. 



privacy of that domestic circle. It is in the year just 
mentioned. The little harvest of the first season has 
been gathered, the autumn evenings are lengthening rap- 
idly, darkness is already brooding over the narrow valley, 
the long and arduous day's work is done. A bright and 
cheerful fire blazes on the spacious hearth, casting a 
ruddy glow on the simply furnished but neat and tidy 
apartment called the kitchen. A simple evening meal 
has been prepared, and father, mother and children 
(John, Mary and Hugh) sit down to partake of it with 
keen and wholesome appetite. A momentary silence 
takes the place of the hum of voices and the playful 
laughter of little ones. Every head is reverently bowed, 
and the deep, strong voice of him who in the old Anglo- 
Saxon language is known as the "houseband" (husband) 
is lifted in thankfulness to the Giver of all good for the 
sustenance which, like the manna of Israel's children, 
comes to them day by day. 

Then while enjoying their simple fare, more than 
crowned heads do the viands of palaces, the experiences 
of the day are recited, "absent friends are brought to 
mind," and restful converse indulged in, blended with 
an occasional gentle admonition to the children, whose 
exuberant spirits the daylight hours have failed to sub- 
due. But notice — when hunger has been sated and the 
evening meal is ended, there is no haste to get away ; 
even the babe in arms, little Sarah, seems to recognize 
a coming calm. The master of the house reaches up- 
ward to the simple shelf made between the joists of the 
unceiled room, and takes down a book, the "Book of 
Books," which is to them an inspiration by day and by 



HEARTHSTONE AND ALTAR. 65 

night, in sickness and in health, in prosperity and in ad- 
versity. Slowly and reverently he opens its lids, and 
turning its well-worn leaves as if looking for some favor- 
ite selection, says, "Let us read a portion of God's Word, 
the One Hundred and Third Psalm," and we hear among 
other passages the following: 

"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, 
bless His holy name. . . . Who satisfieth thy mouth with 
good things so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's. 
The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and 
of great mercy. He hath not dealt with us after our sins, 
nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. Like as a 
father pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth them that 
fear Him. For He knoweth our frame, He remembereth 
that we are dust. . . . But the mercy of the Lord is 
from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear 
Him, and His righteousness unto children's children. . . 
Bless the Lord all His works, in all places of His do- 
minion, bless the Lord, O my soul." 

The Book is then as reverently closed as it had been 
opened, and all, in a silence unbroken save by the voice 
of husband and father, kneel in prayer before the King 
of kings. The goodness and power of Deity are ac- 
knowledged, the unworthiness of the suppliants con- 
fessed, the blessings of the day recounted, the favor of 
heaven invoked upon all, and especially upon the "lambs 
of the fold," and the petition closes by commending all 
to God's care for the night. The remaining moments of 
the evening quickly pass in preparation for sleep. The 



C5 THE CLAN LINN. 



little ones, disrobed, kneel together about the mother's 
lap, and slowly repeat in unison : 

"Now I lay me down to sleep, 
I pray the Lord my soul to keep; 
If I should die before I wake, 
I pray the Lord my soul to take." 

They are then carefully tucked in the trundle bed and a 
good-night kiss from mother closes the wearied eyelids 
in the dreamless sleep of childhood, while she whispers: 

"The bairnies cuddle doon at nicht 

Wi' mirth that's dear to me ; 
But soon the big warl's cark and care 

Will quaten doon their glee. 

Yet come what may to ilka ane, 

May he what rules aboon, 
Aye whisper though their pows be bauld, 

O, bairnies, cuddle doon." 

The Linns who read this will recognize in it no imagi- 
nary picture, no false coloring, no attempt to overstate 
the truth. As given it depicts a scene which was enacted 
day after day in and about Concord, and the site of their 
settlement in America, for more than a century, until 
the last of the name was called away from the old village 
by death. Who that has been brought up under such 
influences can ever lose the spirit of reverence for Deity? 
Its remembrance follows him as a pillar of cloud by day 
and a pillar of fire by night, a protecting aegis by sea 
and by land, in calm and in storm, in sickness and in 
health, and enables him to say, "Yea, though I walk 



HEARTHSTONE AND ALTAR. 67 

through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear 
no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they 
comfort me." 

The descendants of the man who thus worshipped God, 
scattered as they are all over our land, carry with them 
(unconsciously though it be) an emanation of that spirit 
which in the olden time met God face to face in that 
lonely cabin, and spake to Him as a man speaketh to his 
friend. Such an influence is not lost. Every heart has 
in it a chord which vibrates responsive to virtuous 
thought and noble act, and though it may seem dead to 
human perception, will awaken under the influence of 
holy memories. The dissolute sailor who paces the deck 
of his ship in the midnight watch, thinks as never before 
of the pious example and fervent prayer of his long-de- 
parted mother, and, looking up, calls the stars to witness 
that he will henceforth lead a better life. We cannot 
measure the mystic influences which go out from 
the fireside when pure and ennobling. As gravity binds 
us inexorably to the most distant stars by virtue of some 
strange and incomprehensible power, so are our lives 
governed by forces which we cannot measure, and which 
we cannot ignore if we would. 



CHAPTER X. 

3tfj? Eelujum of % Ktttts. 

"Life's more than breath and the quick round of blood; 
'Tis a great spirit and a busy heart. 
We live in deeds not years; in thoughts, not breaths; 
In feelings, not in figures on a dial. 
We should count time by heart throbs. He most lives 
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best." — Anonymous. 

THE descendants of the Linns will be interested to 
know, next to their ancestry, something of the 
religion of their forefathers. We have already referred 
to the reverence of the Celts for a Supreme Being, and 
it can be truly said that the Linns have ever been deeply 
imbued with the feeling of reverence. Reverence was 
the keynote of their religion ; reverence for Deity, rever- 
ence for religious worship, whether held in vaulted 
cathedral, gilded pagoda, minaretted mosque, domed 
synagogue, humble "meeting house," or under swaying 
forest tree ; reverence for constituted authority in Church 
or State, when it represented the gentle, loving precepts 
of the meek and lowly Saviour ; reverence for age, for 
superiors, for purity, for truth. 

In common with the Scottish people at large, they 
were originally Protestants of Calvinistic tenets, fathful 
followers of the teachings of John Knox. The branch of 
the Linn family represented by us is Methodistic, and 
hence the very pertinent inquiry, why this change in re- 
igious creed? The answer is a threefold one. First, in 
their temporary island home, Ireland, they were thrown 
into the society of the Widneys (as we have seen in 

68 



THE RELIGION OF THE LINNS. 69 

Chapter IV), who, coming from Holland, were disciples 
of Arminius, — Holland in the sixteenth century being 
the chief centre of the opponents of Calvinism as taught 
in Switzerland. Those were the days of heated theo- 
logical discussion, when many men placed more stress 
on the theological dogmas a man advocated than upon 
the uprightness and purity of his life. Protestants and 
Catholics vied with each other in persecuting those who 
dissented from them in religious beliefs, so much so that 
in Geneva, a stronghold of the Reformation and Calvin's 
own city, Michael Servetus, a learned man, was burned 
£ at the stake in 1^53, without a protest from Calvin, be- 
cause he could not and would not avow a belief in the 
doctrine of the Trinity. 

The Widneys were great readers and keen controver- 
sialists in theological discussion. The doctrine of pre- 
destination by which, to use Calvin's language, "God 
adopts some to the hope of eternal life, and adjudges 
others to eternal death," was not in accordance with 
their sense of divine goodness and justice. While the 
logic of St. Augustine and Calvin was metaphysically 
impregnable, it was incompatible with the strong com- 
mon sense of the Linns, who, though not "subject to 
every wind of doctrine," have never been bigoted. They 
had little patience with the discussions of the "Sublap- 
sarians" or "Supralapsarians," or with any of the inani- 
ties of the Middle Age schoolmen. It must also be re- 
membered that in those days the pill of Calvinism had 
not yet been sugar-coated, nor reduced in size to the di- 
mensions of a homeopathic globule. 

At that time also John Wesley, that colossal evangelist 



70 THE CLAN LINN. 



of the eighteenth century, was moving like a pillar of 
fire, day and night, through England and Ireland, and 
proclaiming (although a minister of the Established 
Church of England, in whose fold he lived and died) the 
doctrine of "free will and free grace." The wonderful 
influence he exerted over the people of the nation at 
large may be inferred from the testimony of those who 
differed from him in religious creed. The writer was 
once present at the dedication of a cathedral in London, 
England, when Cardinal Manning, who at that time had 
no superior as a prelate in the Church of Rome, 
delivered the sermon. In dwelling upon the vices 
of the day and the need for a deeper religious life, 
he referred to a similar laxity of public morals in the 
preceding century, and then remarked, "Had it not been 
for the labors of that great and pious man, John Wesley, 
in the last century, I do not know what would have be- 
come of Great Britain." The fervent appeals of John 
Wesley to his fellow-men, in striking contrast to the 
apathetic methods of many of his brother clergy, won the 
hearts of the masses, and the Linns and Widneys heard 
his message gladly. Add to this also the fact that Hugh 
Linn had gained the good graces of Sarah Widney, a 
sister of James Widney, and also an Arminian, and was 
plighted to her in marriage. Love makes many things 
easy, and may be of great assistance in matters of faith as 
well as of works, and one can understand how easily the 
barriers of denominationalism were scaled. Thus it was 
that Hugh Linn threw overboard the Jonah which had 
wrecked many a noble craft, and henceforth sailed under 
lighter canvas. 



THE RELIGION OF THE LINNS. 71 

When he was established in his mountain home in the 
New World, he found himself far removed from any 
organized religious society. No church bell was there 
heard to summon the devout worshiper to the portals of 
the sanctuary. But the flame which burned so brightly 
on the family altar in that little cabin, shed its rays into 
every nook and corner of that secluded valley. Lay 
reading and preaching were established in his home, in- 
vitations were sent out far and wide to the rough moun- 
taineers to come to religious service, and when they were 
assured of the deep religious enthusiasm and fervid zeal 
of their host, they needed no second invitation. Men, 
women and children came miles on foot and horseback 
over mountain trails to this new centre of worship. 
When the narrow confines of the cabin proved too re- 
stricted to accommodate the eager throng, the groves, 
"God's first temples," sheltered the listening multitude, 
while prayer and praise, song and exhortation awakened 
to a new and higher life many an honest and noble heart 
under the uncouth garb of a pioneer. Hugh Linn's cabin 
became a recognized centre for religious worship, and 
was called by the people of the valley "Immanuel," the 
biblical expression for the term "God with us." 

The peculiar polity of Methodism known as the "Itin- 
erancy," according to which its preachers were sent out 
annually at that day into different sections of the country, 
with instructions to visit every settlement possible, and 
to hold services in frontier cabins, resulted in great ac- 
cessions to that church. Many pioneers who had been 
church members in established communities, were eager 
to receive the message of the Gospel from any sincere 



72 THE CLAN LINN. 



Christian minister without regard to any denominational 
creed. But at that date even the itinerant had not found 
his way into those mountain fastnesses. An examina- 
tion of the Methodist Conference records shows that 
York circuit was formed in 1781, Bedford in 1784, and 
Carlisle in 1794. It is probable that Carlisle circuit, in 
the bounds of which Concord circuit was afterward form- 
ed, was thus late in being created, because (Methodism 
not being established in this country until 1773, when 
the Cumberland Valley was already settled), the itinerant 
chose as his field of labor the more inaccessible mountain 
districts on account of their greater need for his services. 

The century had almost closed before this zealous 
scout of the church found his way over the mountain 
trails into the head of Path Valley, and he received a 
hearty welcome from the Linns and Widneys. Relig- 
ious services were held in their homes, which became the 
recognized headquarters of the itinerant. In November, 
1800, the first Methodist Society was organized at Con- 
cord, which had been laid out as a village by James Wid- 
ney three years before. There were eleven charter 
members in the Society, among them Hugh Linn and 
wife and three of their children, John, Mary and Hugh 
Linn 2d. James Widney was appointed the first class 
leader. Francis Asbury, the first Superintendent of 
Methodism in America, who had been sent over by John 
Wesley to foster the rapidly growing societies, once 
preached in Concord in a large log cabin, called "Castle 
Cool," which stood on the crest of the hill just east of 
"The Diamond." 

The life of the earlv itinerant was one of most exhaust- 



THE RELIGION OF THE LINNS. 73 

ing labor, and the interest which the Linns have always 
entertained in Methodism will excuse the writer for the 
following digression from the main subject. For weeks, 
and sometimes months, he threaded his way through the 
mountains on horseback, preaching to the frontiersmen 
and their families wherever and whenever a half dozen 
or more could be gathered, before he would again reach 
his point of departure. He suffered more than the pio- 
neer. With irregular, scanty, and often poorly prepared 
diet, a change of beds almost every night in the week, 
very often sleeping on cabin floors for lack of better 
accommodation, exposed to rain and snow, heat and cold 
in his long and lonesome journeys through the sparsely 
settled regions, his lot was not an enviable one, viewed 
from a temporal standpoint. 

A Presbyterian physician, once known to us, who had 
practiced medicine in the backwoods, told the following 
story : 

"I was called to see a patient late in the day and several 
miles from a settlement, when a violent storm came up 
and I could not leave the cabin before darkness set in. 
The wind was blowing a hurricane, overturning trees in 
the forest, and the rain descending in torrents. While I 
sat by the chimney fire talking to the family, there was a 
knock at the door. The husband opened the door, and 
a man, standing in the darkness outside, said, with a 
pleasant voice: 'Will you allow me to go in out of the 
storm and stay over night? I am a Methodist preacher. 
The storm overtook me, and it is so dark I can't see the 
trail. I have an appointment to preach at the settlement 
tomorrow.' 



74 THE CLAN LINN. 



" 'Come in,' was the reply, 'and I'll put your horse in 
the shed.' The preacher's clothing was drenched with 
rain, but greeting all pleasantly and laying his saddle- 
bags in the corner, he proceeded to dry his garments by 
frequently shifting his position before the blazing hearth. 
xA.ll were soon friends at ease, and after a couple of hours 
conversation, the host said to us (the storm still continu- 
ing) he was sorry he could not give us a bed for the 
night, but he would lay some bedding on the floor. We 
were glad of any opportunity to spend the night under 
shelter. The preacher said, 'Excuse me, but would you 
allow worship before we sleep?' Assent was given, and 
he added, 'It is always our rule to have family worship 
where we are staying, if there is no objection.' He then 
took from his saddle-bags a small Bible, read a few 
verses, and offered one of the most fervent and touching 
prayers I ever heard. We passed the night lying on the 
floor, with our feet to the fire ; received a frugal meal in 
the morning, and separated with a cordial invitation from 
the preacher to attend services at the settlement. I then 
learned to value as never before the labor and sacrifices 
of the itinerant preacher." 



CHAPTER XI. 

Stoprosuut of tlj? Klttmfl. 

"When I remember all 
The friends so linked together 
I've seen around me fall, 
Like leaves in wintry weather, 

I feel like one 

Who treads alone 
Some banquet hall deserted, 

Whose lights are fled, 

Whose garlands dead, 
And all but him departed." — Moore. 

T) USY were the early days of the Linns in that moun- 
■*-* tain home. Time flew rapidly by. The heel-be- 
winged messenger of Jove sped not more swiftly. Events 
crowded each other in quick succession. The fiery blood 
of the ancient Celt coursing through their veins would 
not permit the Linns to sit down in idleness and sloth. 
Trammeled as they were by an inauspicious environment, 
beautiful and fascinating as it was, the growing and in- 
creasing family looked beyond the narrow confines of 
their valley home for wider fields of enterprise and use- 
fulness. 

Fate often opposes men like a wall of adamant, and 
superhuman effort is sometimes required to carve a way 
through difficulties. Some men and women sit supinely 
down appalled by the fierceness of life's struggle, and, 
waiting Micawber-like "for something to turn up," live 
and die in the shadow of the ancestral tree. But the 
Scot is a born rover. The word Scot signifies a wan- 
derer, and he fairly outstrips the descendants of Hagar, 

75 



76 THE CLAN LINN. 



hence the adage, "A Scotchman is never at home unless 
he is abroad." He and his first cousin, the Scotch Irish, 
are ubiquitous. They are found today the world over 
wherever there is a demand for special activity and enter- 
prise. Is danger to be faced? Without a moment's 
hesitation they fling themselves into the forefront of 
battle and snatch victory from the very jaws of defeat. 
Balaklava and Inkerman were made possible only by the 
impetuosity and heroism of the Highlander. The Viking 
and the Saxon found in him a foeman worthy of their 
steel. Today he is seen climbing the Himalayas, trek- 
king in South Africa, reclaiming the wilds of Australia 
and New Zealand, and leading pioneers through the vast 
forests of the Hudson Bay region and the illimitable 
plains of the Canadian Northwest. 

Horse Valley and Path Valley sufficed as a nursery 
for the Linns, but greater latitude must be furnished the 
growing scions. One by one the children were springing 
up into the stature of men and women. The school in 
which they were being nurtured was a grand one for the 
development of family virtues and Christian heroism. 
They there learned the lessons of industry, economy and 
perseverance in the face of never-ceasing difficulties, and 
as it never could have been learned in an old and settled 
neighborhood. 

With advancing and matured years for the children 
came the interesting and important question of mar- 
riage and of future location. At the close of the cen- 
tury John Linn had attained his majority and put his 
heart (1802) in the keeping of one of the lasses of the 
valley named Scyoc, a maid of good parentage, well 



DISPERSION OF THE LINNS. 77 

nurtured and proficient in all the mysteries and accom- 
plishments of housekeeping. He was influenced, as the 
first born and mainstay of his parents, as well as by the 
proximity of her home, to settle near the old homestead, 
where he lived and died in 1845, after having brought 
up a family of ten children. 

Among his descendants are the Heeters of Kewanee, 
111. ; the Morrises of Cambria and Derby, Iowa ; the 
Swicks of Rolla, Mo. ; the Lodges of Emmaville, Pa. ; 
the Rohms of Bellmore, Ind. ; the Hoops of Harrison- 
ville, and the Alexanders of Hopewell, Pa. ; the Linns 
of Basin City, Wyoming; the Hennings of Julesburg, 
Col. ; the Linns of Derby, Iowa ; the Hillards of Kendale, 
Montana; the Rubles of Shele, Wyoming; the Means of 
Marcus, Iowa ; the Linns of Jupiter and Letcher, Cal., 
and Altoona, Pa.; the Diggins of Altoona; the Linns 
and Coles of Newton, Mo.; the Linns of Ravanna, the 
Grays of Moberly, and the Hunters of Princeton, Mo. ; 
the Linns of Concordia, Kansas, and of Dow and Bixby, 
I. T. ; the Wallaces of Bunker Hill, Healy and Success, 
Kansas, and of Fowler, Cal. ; the Nelsons of Success, 
Kansas; the Kelleys and Wybles of Mifflin, the Cohills 
of Lewistown, Tyrone and Osceola Mills, and the Weav- 
ers of Saltillo, Pa. ; the Widneys, McClanahans and Wil- 
sons of Cherry Fork, O. ; the Bowdens, Cisneys and 
Rocks of New Paris, the Cisneys of Burnt Cabins, and 
the Cromers of Hiram, Pa. ; the Widneys and Greenes 
of Lyndon, Kansas ; the Books of Shade Valley and 
Blain, Pa.; the Hecks of Lock Haven and Coudersport, 
Pa. ; the Widneys of Fay, Okla. ; the McMaths of Blairs 
Mills, Pa. ; the Stockbergers and Hecklers of Hedrich, 



78 THE CLAN LINN. 



the Shirks of Sutherland, the Browns of Tiffin, the 
Bookers of Danbury and Anson, the Robinsons of Pan- 
ama, the Bookers of Percy, the Rinks and Osbornes of 
Shelby, Iowa ; the Forakers of McConnellsburg, Pa. ; the 
Kilpatricks of Council Bluffs, Iowa; the Casses of Peo- 
ria, 111. ; the Creamers of Crete, Neb. ; the Snyders of 
Cameron, Mo. ; the Linns of Robinsonville, Pa., Fair 
Play, Md., San Francisco, Cal., and Shaw, W. Va. ; the 
Millers of Purcell, Pa. ; the Widneys of St. Joe Station, 
Ind., and Hicksville, Ohio; the Kageys and Carpenters 
of St. Joe Station ; the Hulls of Colorado Springs, Col. ; 
the Linns of Maddensville, Shade Gap, Reeds Gap, War- 
riors Mark and Mt. Union, Pa. ; the Seilhamers of Orbi- 
sonia, and the Potts of Rock Hill, Pa. ; the Linns of South 
Bend, Cosmopolis and Arctic, Washington, and of Glen- 
wood, Iowa; the Gotters of Scranton, Iowa, and Rose- 
burg, Oregon ; the Farrs and Sanfords of Bartlett, Neb. ; 
the Dwyers of Centralia, and the Dews of Arctic, Wash- 
ington ; the Davises of Lindon, Iowa ; the Sanfords of 
Ericson, Neb.; the McCullochs of Wilton, N. D. ; the 
Gowlings of San Pedro, Cal. ; the Weights of Nishna- 
botna, Mo. ; the Taylors of Bruel, Neb., and Huston- 
town, Pa. ; and the Browns of Maddensville, Pa. 

William Linn, second child of Hugh Linn, who, as 
we have seen in Chapter V, was left in Ireland at the time 
of the emigration of Hugh Linn, had two children, who 
came to America in 1842. One of them, who had mar- 
ried in Ireland Mary Chadwick, has among his descend- 
ants the Linns and Adamses of Philadelphia, Pa. ; the 
Linns of Washington, D. C, of Rochester and Buffalo, 
N. Y., and of Nice, France. 



DISPERSION OF THE LINNS. 79 

Mary Linn, third child of Hugh Linn, who as a little 
tot of six years had emigrated with her parents to 
America, developed into a modest, blushing maiden, and 
gave her hand and heart to a neighbor lad, George 
Loughridge. They, too, settled nearby, and soon another 
family was launched on life's tumultuous sea. Three of 
their children died young, and today seven children and 
adults of the Loughridge family, indicated by as many 
mounds, are sleeping side by side in the village cemetery 
at Concord, reminding us of the beautiful stanzas by 
Wadsworth, "We Are Seven." George Loughridge and 
four surviving children moved toward the Southland, fol- 
lowing the West Conococheague in its sinuous course 
near to the Potomac at Boonesboro, Md. ; and their de- 
scendants today are found in the Loughridges of Phila- 
delphia, the Smiths of Chambersburg, the Barkers of 
Llanerch and Ashbourne, Pa. ; the Neills of Hagerstown, 
Md. ; the Woodburys of Alaska ; and the Folwells of Mt. 
Holly, N.J. 

Hugh Linn 2d, at the age of twenty-three wooed and 
won the heart of Ann Widney, daughter of James Wid- 
ney, the eldest of the Widney family in America. They 
set up housekeeping in Path Valley, on one of James 
Widney's farms, now owned by the Robertson family, 
and on the site of the present house, a half mile south of 
Concord, their first born, James Widney Linn, saw the 
light in September, 1809. To them were born eleven 
children, whose descendants are found in the Linns of 
Bryn Mawr, Pa. ; the Henrys of Harmon and Polo, 111. ; 
the Henrys and Campbells of Edgerton, and the Henrys 
and Stevensons of Wellsville, Kansas; the Woolhisers, 



8o THE CLAN LINN. 



Liboldts and Ogdens of Mills, and the Wyatts of Spring- 
view, Neb. ; the Taylors and Stolps of Chicago ; the Wid- 
neys and Finleys of Concord, Pa. ; the Frazers of Shelby, 
Iowa; the Taylors of Eugene City, Oregon, and of 
Savanna and Joliet, 111. ; the Cogswells of Boone, Iowa ; 
the Loughridges of West Side, Iowa, of Cotter and 
Chisimville, Arkansas, and of Alderson, I. T., the Sin- 
clairs of Stephen, Minn. ; the Woolhisers of West Side, 
Iowa ; the Marshes of Omaha, Neb. ; the Mallettes of 
Lake City, Iowa ; the Williamses of Shawnee, Okla. ; the 
Pattersons of Alderson, I. T. ; the Dysarts and Brene- 
mans of Bellwood, Pa. ; the Linns of Long Beach, Cal., 
of El Dorado, Kansas, of Denver, Col., and of Carroll, 
Neb. ; the Smiths of Edgewater, Col. ; the Blooms and 
Winters of Las Vegas, New Mexico ; the Typers of Polo, 
111. ; the Sanfords, Sandys and Ernests of Rolfe, Iowa ; 
the Typers of Hampton, Iowa, Neceda, Wis., and Wheat- 
land, Wyoming. 

Sarah Linn, in her teens, found a mate in Samuel 
Campbell, but her married life was brief and she died 
childless in 1812. 

Margaret, the next oldest child, married Benjamin V. 
Scyoc. They made a home near her parents and reared 
a family of seven children, one dying in infancy. Some 
of their children continued to reside in the neighborhood 
until near the close of the last century, and some of their 
descendants are still found there. Others are found 
throughout Pennsylvania, and in New York State, but 
we have not been able to trace the various members of 
this family. Letters of inquiry sent to some of them 
have met with no response. 



DISPERSION OF THE LINNS. 81 

James Linn, seventh child of Hugh Linn, on return- 
ing from the War of 1812, married in 181 5 Nancy 
Booher, and has descendants as follows : The Linns and 
Sells of Table, Neb. ; the Hollars of Winchester, Va. ; the 
Bringolfs of Tacoma, Washington ; the Linns of Pierce 
City, Mo. ; the Hattons of Sidney, Iowa ; the Robertsons 
of Diller, Neb. ; the Linns of Salem, Oregon ; the Cut- 
shalls of Shelby, Iowa; the Evanses of Emon, Washing- 
ton; the Linns of Shelby, and the Stevenses of Han- 
cock, Iowa ; the Linns of Howell and Rapid City, Da- 
kota; and the Bests of Shelby, Iowa. 

Jane Linn, the eighth child, fell into the toils of an- 
other of the Campbell clan, and married Robert Camp- 
bell in 1818. She has among her descendants the 
Lauthers of Doylesburg, Pa. ; the McLaughlins of Ma- 
pleton and Shelby, Iowa ; the Robertses of Lindsey, Cal. ; 
the McLaughlins of Omaha, Neb., and Edmonton, Can- 
ada ; the Ennises of Omaha, Neb. ; the Brattons and 
Winegardners of Dublin Mills, the Hustons and Wag- 
ners of Hustontown, the Hurleys of Lewistown, and the 
Graceys of Gracey, Pa. ; the Buckleys of Mapleton and 
Animosa, Iowa; and the Campbells of Mineral De O'- 
Campo, Mexico. 

Ann, or Nancy, as was the old-time familiar term of 
endearment, youngest child of Hugh Linn, married, in 
1820, Hugh Wallace, who was born in Glen Crew, Ire- 
land, and has as descendants the Chases of Talmadge 
and Solomon, the Whitneys of Niles, and the Wallaces 
of Abilene and Junction City, Kansas; the Ewings of 
McConnellsburg and Harrisonville, and the Tinniffs of 
McConnellsburg, Pa. ; the Devenneys of Dwight, Kan- 



&z THE CLAN LINN. 



sas, Coger, Okla., and Ponca, I. T. ; the Traceys of Cox, 
Okla. ; the Wallaces of Concord, and the Shearers of 
Spring Run, Pa. 

The first decade of the last century had just been 
numbered when the sable-winged messenger of death 
hovered over the home of Hugh Linn. That saddest 
hour in the history of a man's life came to him when 
she, who for a third of a century had walked by his side, 
who had borne and nursed his children, who had made 
for him more than all else could that which men call 
home, felt the chill of approaching death. But she had 
done her duty nobly and well, and she, who had never 
known defeat in the struggle of life, acknowledged in 
1810 the supremacy of our universal foe, but could truly 
say, "O death where is thy sting, O grave where is thy 
victory." In 181 5, five years later, Hugh Linn obeyed 
the same summons and was laid by the side of his com- 
panion in the little village cemetery. Today their last 
resting places are marked by the same columns of moun- 
tain sandstone, which were placed there ninety years ago, 
containing name and date of decease of each. In the 
quiet and simplicity of that beautiful spot, over which 
wave the fronds of mountain pine, they rest in peace 
until Gabriel's trump shall summon them to a higher 
life. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Stye Abatttottri* §>iie of % ©lb if ome ztmb 

"For we are the same our fathers have been, 
We see the same sights our fathers have seen, 
We drink the same stream and view the same sun, 
And run the same course our fathers have run. 

They died! ay they died; we, things that are now, 

That walk on the turf that lies over their brow, 

And make in their dwellings a transient abode, 

Meet the things that they met on their pilgrimage road." — Knox. 

A FEW of the principal events in the history of our 
family have been briefly sketched, its adopted 
locality in the New World described, its early struggles 
in pioneer life detailed, some of the family characteris- 
tics alluded to and its dispersion given. By the corre- 
spondence which has taken place during the last year and 
a half, individual families have added stone after stone 
to the monumental cairn, a twig or branch to the ances- 
tral tree, a contribution to the sum total of family rec- 
ords from the time of the emigration down to the year 
1905, as seen in the genealogical records and biographi- 
cal sketches which follow. Our task is in a measure 
finished, though not perfected, for we regret the failure 
of some to answer the family roll call, and we are now 
almost ready to say to each other Adieu. 

Let us, however, before parting, gather for a few mo- 
ments by that beautiful spring where Hugh Linn estab- 
lished a home in 1788. Its waters still leap swiftly forth 

83 



84 . THE CLAN LINN. 



like a released prisoner, impatient of restraint, dancing 
for very gladness, singing the song of liberty, sparkling 
in the sunlight, and rippling over their pebbly path as 
if striving to emulate the "Falls of Lodore" in their 
journey to the valley below. The birds too sing the 
songs of yore in the treetops overhead, and ever and 
anon drop airily downward into the stream, dipping 
their plumage into its perennial freshness, ruffling again 
and again their wealth of down and feather, and perch on 
bush or tree to preen their multi-colored garb. Wild 
flowers here and there gaze upon us as if in wonder that 
so many strangers have invaded their quiet haunts. 

See ! here is a flower that speaks volumes to us, for it 
was long ago cultivated by hands now turned to dust. 
It marks the site of the original cabin. Year after year 
for generations it has lived 

"to blush unseen, 
And waste its fragrance on the desert air." 

for no human habitation nor voice is near. It is the 
"Blue Flag" (Fleur-de-lis), its tongue eloquently pro- 
claiming the care and watchfulness of the Great Father, 
who has preserved it all these years since our common 
ancestor gave it a place beneath the windows of his forest 
home. "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow ; 
they toil not, neither do they spin ; and yet I say unto 
you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed 
like one of these." 

Is there any hidden mystery surrounding the preser- 
vation of these lonely emblems of a home long since 



ABANDONED HOMESTEAD VISITED. 85 

broken up? Can it be that the fairies have watered by 
night and guarded by day these reminders of the Lares 
and Penates, the household gods of the departed Linns? 
Have they been thus preserved to recall to us their pos- 
terity, the "Blue Bells," and heather-covered moors of 
Scotland, the home for untold generations of our sires? 
But the time wanes and we must go hence. Let us 
visit the little village burial ground, where so many of 
our kin sleep the sleep that knows no waking. Donated 
by James Widney, brother of Sarah ( Widney) Linn, more 
than a hundred years ago for cemetery purposes, it stands 
upon an elevation fitted by beauty of situation and na- 
tural advantages for the mausoleum of the greatest of 
the world's heroes or sages. What thoughts come troop- 
ing through the vista of memory marshaled by a myriad 
of associations ! These granite and marble shafts speak 
to us with an eloquence not born of this world. True, 
they tell us that here are deposited, beneath these ancient 
pine trees, all that remains of those who were once dearer 
to us than life itself. But with a still small voice, like 
the music of the spheres, not heard by those whose ears 
are unattuned to their speech, they summon us to noble 
conceptions of life, to heroic ambitions, to hallowed aspi- 
rations. 

Hugh Linn stands before us, clothed in flesh, and the 
eye which once glowed with a saintly life inspires us 
with a new and holier energy. Like a panorama the 
deeds of our forefathers, focused in this place, flash upon 
our vision, and we say from our heart of hearts, may 
our lives never disgrace the record they set before us. 



86 THE CLAN LINN. 



With uncovered heads and moistened eyes, we look upon 
these mounds, and repeat the prayer of the ancient Latin 
church liturgy: 

" ?Rrqm*m Artmtam Sana lEte, Dmttitt*." 

(Give to them, O God, eternal rest.) 

The soft, sweet voice which sung for us a lullaby, 
The love-lit eyes which wept at suffering's cry, 
The heaving bosom where secure we safely guarded lay, 
Like peaceful fleeting dreams have sadly passed away. 

Our fathers, sleeping, lie beneath the grassy sod, 
While to the rising sun the fragrant flowerets nod; 
Their low arched roofs the creeping vines entwine, 
Their requiem plaintive sung by incense laden pine. 

At evening shade the sooty cricket strings his strident lyre, 
The humble glow worm trims again her vesper fire, 
The plunging night hawk shrieks from circling path o'erhead, 
Fit comrades in the night watch for the lowly dead. 

Sleep on, unmoved by labor's din or martial drum, 
While sentried serried stars their ceaseless cycles run, 
Till Gabriel stand one foot on sea and one on land, 
Earth's waiting, wearied, sleeping millions to command. 

One look more and we part forever. Near us is the 
mansion built by James Widney, and before us, across 
the Tuscarora Creek, are the lands once tilled by Hugh 
Linn 2d, all hallowed to their posterity. Behind us is the 
"Round Top," one of the ranges of the beautiful Blue 
Mountains ; to our right is "The Knob," a thousand 
feet above us, guarding, sentinel like, the place on which 
we stand ; in front is the Tuscarora Mountain, all over- 
looking the valley ; while nestled in the vale at our feet, 



ABANDONED HOMESTEAD VISITED. 87 



is the little village of Concord, the site of so many of our 
early family activities. Tis a quiet village, giving little 
indication that at one time it was a centre of life and in- 
dustry, which has been a stranger to it for half a cen- 
tury. That great artery of modern life, the railway, 
which has built so many towns and cities, has sapped its 
vitality, crippled its industries and blasted its former 
enterprise. Thus has it been stranded upon the shoals 
of life's sea; but the beauty of its environment still re- 
mains, save in so far as the axe of the ruthless and un- 
sentimental woodman has devastated its hill crests and 
mountain slopes. 

We venerate it for what it was, we love it for what it 
still retains of kinship and friendship, and though Icha- 
bod seems written over its portals, we are not without 
hope that a renaissance may brighten its history, that the 
dawn of a new era may dispel the clouds, and that it 
may rise Phoenix-like into a new and better life. We 
cannot and shall not forget it, and hesitate to depart, but 
the duties of life call to us from far and near, and much 
as affection urges us to remain, we must say 

Farewell, a long farewell, ye stately mountains old, 
Whose towering peaks by matin light are tipped with gold ; 
Where carved and spreading beech, and clinging, clustering vine, 
Rehearse anew the Arcadian loves of auld lang syne. 

Upon thy heights the Storm King forges lances keen, 
His anvil's thundering roar awakening every glen ; 
He there from lurid darkening cloud a draft distills 
For thirsty man and beast, and for the rippling rills. 



88 THE CLAN LINN. 



Thy hoary heads and beetling brows the clouds encloak, 
Thy sides are belted round by sturdy mountain oak; 
Thy limbs are swathed by fields of living green, 
Thy feet are gently laved by swift but limpid stream. 

Farewell, thou village nestled in the narrow vale, 
Pilfered by man from turkey wild and piping quail ; 
May peace and concord guard secure each quiet home, 
While we, thy restless, truant sons, the wide world roam. 

Farewell, ye faithful friends of kindred clans, 
Who oft have greeted us with open generous hands ; 
May heaven's benediction on you daily rest, 
And every heart accept the King of kings as guest. 



W Slt|0u ifntimtr ODnr, mtya irnirllrat in nttjatrrn, 
intnrnrtrablr to mortals, tttr aamr bring gratrr- 
nag, tooag ann fnrrnrr, tn rotjnm a iljnuaano urara 
arr but aa a ntatrlj in tfyr ninljt, trarlj na tn rrnrrrnrr 
Gtynarlf, anb uitjrn nnr frta flrrting urara arr past, 
bring ua tn tljat rrat totjtrtj rrmainrtl| fnr ilju 
nrnnlr. Amrn. 



PART II. 



GENEALOGY OF 
THE LINN 
AND 
RELATED FAMILIES 



CONTENTS. 



SECTION I. 
First Generation in America 95 

SECTION II. 
Family of Hugh Linn and Sarah Widney 97 

SECTION III. 
Family of John Linn and Jane Scyoc 99 

Descendants of Charles Linn and Martha Snyder 100 

" Martha Linn and William Widney 104 

" " Sarah Linn and John Snyder 107 

" " Hugh Linn and Mary Saylor m 

" " Jane Linn and John P. Widney 112 

" " John Linn and Eliza Rouse 113 

*• " James Linn and Hannah Roberts 114 

«' " Eliza Linn and William Taylor 117 

SECTION IV. 
Family of William Linn and U9 

Descendants of Hugh Linn and Mary Chadwick 120 

SECTION V. 
Family of Mary Linn and George Loughridge 121 

Descendants of Abraham Loughridge and Margaret Linn. 122 
" " William Loughridge and Rachel Eavy.. 122 

SECTION VI. 

Family of Hugh Linn 2d and Ann Widney 125 

Descendants of James Widney Linn and Mary Wilds 126 

" Sarah Ann Linn and Samuel Henry 126 

" Mary Linn and Samuel Booker 127 

" Jane Linn and A. Jackson Taylor 127 

" Margaret Linn and Abraham Loughridge 129 

" Alexander E. Linn and Matilda Shaver. 130 

" Arabella M. Linn and Wm. M. Bloom. 131 

" Eleanor Pomeroy Linn and Wm. Typer. 132 



SECTION VII. 
Family of James Linn and Nancy Booher. 



PAGE 
133 



Descendants of Casper B. Linn and Elizabeth Lauthers. . 134 

" " James. W. Linn and Sarah Chilcoat 134 

" " Jane Linn and Charles W. Evans 135 

" " Hugh Linn and Carrie Feight 13S 

" " Samuel B. Linn and Jane G. Keagy 13s 

" " Jacob B. Linn and Hester A. Chilcoat.. 136 



SECTION VIII. 
Family of Jane Linn and Robert Campbell 137 

Descendants of James Campbell and Eliza Gilliland. . . . 138 

" Ann Eliza Campbell and John Hay.. 138 

" " Martha Campbell and Chas. McLaughlin. 138 

" " Mary Jane Campbell and Isaac Bratton. 139 

" " Nancy W. Campbell and Wm. Buckley. . 140 

" John Campbell and Catherine H. Cook. . 140 



SECTION IX. 
Family of Nancy Linn and Hugh Wallace 141 

Descendants of John Wallace and Elizabeth Berry 142 

" " Mary Ann Wallace and William Ewing. 142 

*' " Margaret Jane Wallace and G. 

W. Devenney 143 

" " Hugh Wallace and Sarah Ann Stake 143 



It is much to be regretted that the older records of 
the Linn family, which were left behind when our branch 
of that family came from the Old World, have been lost. 
Every effort made to find them has resulted in disappoint- 
ment. As they are not obtainable, we shall speak of 
Hugh Linn, born in 1753, as a member of the first gen- 
eration. 

The records which follow have been placed in chro- 
nological order and are as complete as the compiler has 
been able to make them. No effort has been spared to 
reach every member of the Linn family and to include 
in the genealogy all their descendants known under other 
names down to great-grandchildren. Several of the re- 
lated families failed to respond to the invitation to a 
family reunion, and we regret the deficiencies in the gen- 
ealogical record due to that cause. Some in forwarding 
records inadvertently left omissions which time did not 
permit us to supply. Difficulty has been found in some 
cases in deciphering manuscripts, given names particu- 
larly, and the compiler must beg pardon for any errors 
in the text. 

The eye of the professional genealogist will at once 
note and perhaps criticize the fact that we have discarded 
the routine method used in displaying data. The num- 
ber designating the individual and that giving his genera- 
tion, the words born and died, the days and months of 
birth and death, and the place of birth, death and burial, 
as well as all personal remarks have been excluded from 

93 



94 THE CLAN LINN. 



the body of the genealogy. These items have not been 
deemed of sufficient importance to the family at large 
as to warrant their inclusion, and can readily be supplied 
by individual families, while their introduction would 
greatly augment the size and expense of the book. 

A SECTION has been assigned to each family of the 
second generation, and the descendants of each mem- 
ber of the third generation in that family have been 
given under separate captions. In this manner there 
need be no difficulty in designating the generation to 
which anyone belongs. 

The P. O. addresses of all heads of families and adults 
have been given in order to facilitate communication 
among the various branches of the family, thus furnish- 
ing an opportunity to those long and widely separated 
for quickening the ties of kinship. 

G. W. L. 



SECTION I. 

3ffirat <8*n*ratum Ut America. 



HUGH LINN 1753-1 815.... married 1777 

Sarah Widney 1757-1810 






SECTION II. 



family nf 5[w$ Sttttt attfc §>aralf Utimwj. 



JOHN LINN 1778- 1845 • • • -married 1802 

Jane Scyoc 1780-1854 

WILLIAM LINN 1780-18—. . ..married 18— 

MARY LINN 1782-1826. . . .married 1812 

George Loughridge 17 — 1831 

HUGH LINN 2d 1785-1870. . ..married 1808 

Ann Widney 1785-1865 

SARAH LINN 1788-1812. . ..married 1810 

Samuel Campbell 

MARGARET LINN 1 790-1 870. . ..married 1816 

Benjamin V. Scyoc 

JAMES LINN 1 792- 1 848.... married 1815 

Nancy Booher 1798-1877 

JANE LINN 1795-1842. . ..married 1818 

Robert Campbell 1798- 1880 

NANCY LINN 1801-1868. . . .married 1820 

Hugh Wallace 1778- 1854 



97 






SECTION III. 

3f amtlg of 3atyn Etttn unb Mm £>t#at. 



CHARLES LINN 1803- 1876. ...married 1824 

Martha Snyder 1803-1856 married 1857 

Sophia Cornell 

MARTHA LINN 1805-1888. ...married 1826 

William Widney 

SARAH LINN 1806-1892. ...married 1825 

John Snyder 1800-1878 

HUGH LINN 1808-1881 .... married 1837 

Mary Saylor 1814-1892 

MARY LINN 1810-18— . . ..married 18— 

Harmon Hockenberry 

MARGARET LINN 1812-18— . . ..married 18— 

Henry Hockenberry 

JANE LINN 181 5- 185 1.... married 1835 

John P. Widney 1816-1905 

JOHN LINN 1818-1885.... married 1842 

Eliza Jane Rouse 1821-1891 

JAMES LINN 1820-1904 married 1841 

Hannah Roberts 1821-1904 

ELIZA LINN 1822 .... married 1846 

William Taylor 18 14- 1892 

Hustontown, Pa. 
LOFC. 

99 



ioo THE CLAN LINN. 



DESCENDANTS OF CHARLES LINN 
AND MARTHA SNYDER. 

JOHN L. LINN, 1825-1856, married, 1848, Harriet 
Lodge, (now of Bell wood, Pa., and married to D. G. Du- 
vall). Two children, Aquila M. Linn, 1849-1854. — 
Mary C. Linn, 1852, married 1878 to Frank Heeter, of 
Kewanee, 111. Five children, Anna Blanche Heeter 1880. 
—Mamie O. Heeter 1882.— Hale Heeter 1888-1889.— 
Alta L. Heeter 1890. — Alice L. Heeter 1894. 

SUSAN LINN, 1827-1870, married, 1848, Nathan 
Morris, who died 1862. Seven children, Cambridge G. 
Morris, 1849-1852. — Margaret C. Morris, 1851-1869. 
— Martha H. Morris, 1853-1883, married, 1876, J. C. 
Chapman. — Charles Wesley Morris, of Cambria, 
Iowa, 1855, married, 1882, Dora Miller, and has one 
child, Anna Mazelli, 1886. — Benjamin S. Morris, of 
Derby, Iowa, 1857, married, 1887, Sarah F. Thockmor- 
ton. — Annabell Morris, of Rolla, Mo., 1859, married, 
1880, James L. Swick, and had three children, Jessie, 
1881-1892, Robert W., of Rolla, Mo., 1886, Otis, 1905 — 
Robert E. Lee Morris, of Derby, Iowa, 1863, married, 
1886, Flora A. Pollard. Five children, Otis W., 1887, 
Lloyd H., 1889, Olive May, 1892, Lena Roberta, 1895, 
Howard, 1898- 1899. 

CATHERINE LINN, 1829-1897, married, 1852, 7o- 
zabed Lodge, of Emmaville, Penna. — Seven children, 
Julian Lodge, married, 1874, D. F. Rohm, of Bellmore, 
Indiana. — Seven children, William J., 1875-1881, Jessie 
L., 1878, Catherine, 1880- 1881, Grace, 1883, Blanche, 
1886-1892, Mary, 1888, Laura, 1894. — Martha A. 



JOHN LINN— JANE SCYOC. 101 

Lodge, 1855, married, 1887, William Hoop, of Harrison- 
ville, Pa., and has two children, Katherine, 1889, and 
John, 1892. — E. M. Lodge, 1858, married, 1894, William 
Alexander, of Hopewell, Pa., and has three children, 
Irvin Smith, 1895, Raymond, 1897, and William McKin- 
ley, 1898. — Cooper Lodge, of Galesburg, 111., 1862. — 
Henry Lodge, 1865. — Laura Lodge, 1868, and George 
Lodge, 1872, all of Emmaville, Pa. 

SIMON P. LINN, 1832-1891, married, 1850, Clarissa 
Akers, 1829-1880. Ten children, Jesse L. Linn, of Basin 
City, Wyoming, 1852, married, 1875, Jennie Murray, and 
has eight children. Deelte P. Linn, 1876, married, 1895, 
to Clarence Hening, of Julesburg, Col., and has three 
children, Robert, 1896, Mary, 1903, John, 1905. — John 
L. Linn, 1878. — Clarissa M. Linn, of Derby, Iowa, 1880. 
— Maud L. Linn, 1882, married, 1897, to Lee Hillard, of 
Kendale, Montana, and has four children, Fay, 1898, 
Velma, 1899, Opal, 1901, Jessie, 1903. — Adaline Linn, 
1884, married, 1903, to Harry Ruble, of Shele, Wyom- 
ing, and has three children, Mary and Clarissa (twins), 
1903, and Verna, 1905. — Jesse D. Linn, 1886. — Lizzie 
Linn, 1888. — Simon P. Linn, 1895. — Amos A. Linn, of 
Bixby, I. T., 1854, married, 1880, Mary A. Onstot. Nine 
children. Infant child, 1881-1881, Cyrus E. Linn, 1882, 
Grace Linn, 1884-1886, Minta Maude Linn, 1886, Davis 
Henry Linn, 1889, Hattie Belle Linn, 1891, Lizzie May 
Linn, 1893, John Potter Linn, 1895, Floyd McKinley 
Linn, 1898. — Chalmers Armstrong Linn, of Concor- 
dia, Kansas, 1856, married, 1880, Alice Morgan. Seven 
children, Alfred L. Linn, 1881, Francis M. Linn, 1884, 
Chloe R. Linn, 1886, David E. Linn, 1889-1889, Lura M. 



102 THE CLAN LINN. 



Linn, 1891, Leo C. Linn, 1895, Illo L. Linn, 1899. — 
Ezekiel Linn, 1854-1861. — Asa James Linn, 1860- 
1873. — Minnie E. Linn, 1864-1896, married, 1883, 
David Henderson, of Concordia, Kansas. Three chil- 
dren, Alexander D., 1884, Simon P., 1886, and Clarissa 
J., 1890. — Martha Winifred Linn, 1867, married, 
1884, Jerry Raymond, of Bixby, I. T. Five children, 
Cora Edith, 1885, married, 1905, F. C. Lindsey, Charles 
Eugene, 1890, Ella Ruth, 1892, David Luther, 1895, 
Rachel, 1899. — Rachel A. Linn, 1870- 1877, and 
Charles H. Linn, 1870 (twins), of Dow, I. T. — Clar- 
issa M. Linn, 1874-1877. 

HUGH E. LINN, 1835-1891, married, 1858, Kate 
Vanstein, of Eighth avenue, Altoona, Pa. — Five chil- 
dren, Martha Jane Linn, 1859, married, 1883, Jesse 
F. Means, of Marcus, Iowa, nine children, Deborah, 
1883, Mary Gertrude, 1885, Jesse Clifton, 1887, Louisa 
Pearl, 1888, Cora Lee, 1891, Silas Clay, 1895, Frances 
Virginia, 1897, Judie Marie, 1899, Louis Windle, 1903. — 
George B. Linn, of Jupiter, Tuolumne County, Cal., 
1862. — Son, 1864-1864. — James Harry Linn, of 
Eighth street, Altoona, Pa., 1866, married, 1901, Mrs. 
Maggie A. Gilliland, and has three step-children, Mary 
C, 1891, Iona, 1894, James O., 1897. — Mary Gertrude 
Linn, 1871, married, 1892, Simpson J. Diggins, of Eighth 
avenue, Altoona, Pa., two children, Harry Linn, 1893, 
and Hugh E., 1896. 

HENRY LINN, 1838-1893, married, 1868, Rebecca 
Burd, 1848-1885. — Eight children, Simon Frazier Linn, 
of Newton, Mo., 1869, married, 1890, Matilda Drake. — 



JOHN LINN— JANE SCYOC. 103 



Alice Margaret Linn, 1871, married, 1893, Frank 
Cole, of Newton, Mo., five chidren, Lillie, 1895, Simon 
C, 1896, Albert, 1898, Ivan, 1901, Vernon, 1904. — Hes- 
ter Lilly Linn, 1873, oi Derby, Iowa. — Minnie Belle 
Linn, 1875-1894, married, 1893, John Andrews. — 
Thomas Estle Linn, of Ravanna, Mo., 1877, married, 
1898, Bertha May Swan, two children, Eldon, 1900-1901, 
and Dale, 1902. — Laura May Linn, 1880, married 
Charles Gray, of Moberly, Mo. — Nellie Edith Linn, 
1883, married J. Hunter, of Princeton, Mo. — Ethel 
Rebecca Linn, 1885, of Newton, Mo. 

AMOS LINN, of Letcher, Fresno County, Cal., 1840, 
married, 1863, Jane Wallace, and has two children, 
Carrie Sophia Linn, 1863, and Henry Girvin Linn, 
1869. 

MARTHA LINN, 1843, married, 1864, Wilson Wal- 
lace, of Bunker Hill, Kansas. — Nine children, William 
R. Wallace, of Healey, Kansas, 1865, married, 1890, 
Delia F. Maynard, and has seven children, Harry L., 
1891, Charles A., 1893, Christina M., 1895, Edith C, 
1897, Margaretta A., 1899, Sadie M., 1902, Goldina C, 
1904. — Charles L. Wallace, of Success, Kansas, 1867, 
married, 1901, Mary A. Nelson, and has two children, 
George W., 1903, and Richard T., 1904. — George W. 
Wallace, of Fowler, Cal., 1870, married, 1894, Emma 
Sells. — John M. Wallace, of Bunker Hill, 1872, mar- 
ried, 1895, Stella O. Burns, and has four children, Ernest 
M., 1897, Violet R., 1898, Martha E., 1899, Ray, 1904. — 
Frank D. Wallace, of Bunker Hill, 1874, married, 
1901, Dora A. Warner, and has two children, Nelson W., 



104 THE CLAN LINN. 



1902, and Jennie, 1905. — Mary C. Wallace, 1876-1876. 
—Henry Wallace, of Bunker Hill, 1878. — Mary A. 
Wallace, 1881, married, 1901, Nels J. Nelson, of Suc- 
cess, Kansas, and has two children, Clara A., 1902, and 
Wilson F., 1905. — Kate M. Wallace, of Bunker Hill, 
1884. 



DESCENDANTS OF MARTHA LINN AND 
WILLIAM WIDNEY. 

JANE WIDNEY, 1827-1896, married, 1846, John 
Kelley, of Mifflin, Pa. — Seven children, Martha M. 
Kelley, 1 846- 1 846. — Margaret D. Kelley, 1847, mar- 
ried, 1868, William Henry Cisney, of Tyrone, Pa., and 
had eight children, Sarah J., 1869, John Alfred, 1870, 
George Whitefield, 1872, Lucinda Linn, 1875, Thomas 
Emmett, 1877, Nannie G., 1879-1880, Elizabeth Belle, 
1 88 1, and Samuel Widney, 1885. — Ann Elizabeth Kel- 
ley, 1849-1890, married, 1872, George W. Wyble, of 
Mifflin, Pa., and had five children, William, 1872, Emma 
Jane, 1875, Harry K., 1878, Charles Z., 1882, Elmore 
Cisney, 1885. — George W. Kelley, 185 i, married, 1875, 
Alice Collier, and had five children, Harry Linn, 1877, 
Clara Jane, 1879-1881, Maggie May, 1883-1883, George 
Albert, 1885, Bertha N., 1890. — John Widney Kelley, 
of Mifflin, Pa., 1853, married, 1880, Ellen C. Kauffman, 
and had three children, Lulu May, 1881, Mary Jane, 
1886, and Anna E., 1888. — William Alexander Kel- 
ley, of Mifflin, Pa., 1856, married, 1881, Sallie E. Birch- 
field. — Samuel Linn Kelley, of Mifflin, Pa., 1858, 



JOHN LINN— JANE SCYOC. 105 

married, 1879, Matilda J. Bell, and has one child, John 
Wesley, 1879. 

MARGARET WIDNEY, 1829, married, 185 1, George 
W. Cohill, Lewistown, Pa. — Seven children, Amanda 
Bell Cohill, 1852. — John Wesley Cohill, 1854. — 
William Leonard Cohill, of Tyrone, Pa., 1856, mar- 
ried Fairy Huston, and had one child, Lillian, 1888. — 
Rachel Jane Cohill, 1858, married, 1883, William Ed- 
ward Finley, two children, Oris Claude, 1885, and Ed- 
ward Max, 1895. — Martha Linn Cohill, i860, mar- 
ried, 1882, Henry Theodore Weaver, of Saltillo, Pa., 
four children, Harold Guy, 1883, Ethel Gertrude, 1885, 
Edgar, 1890, and Lillian Marie, 1895. — George P. W. 
Cohill, of Osceola Mills, Pa., 1862, married, 1883, Ida 
Free, six children, Mabel Esther, 1884, Edna Gertrude, 
1887, Cecil Worth, 1890, Margaret Jeannette, 1895, Mil- 
lie Satitia, 1900, Fairy Amanda, 1902. — Samuel Edgar 
Cohill, 1868. 

JOHN WIDNEY, 1831-1904, married, 1856, Susan 
Kauffman, of Cherry Fork, Ohio. Six children,WiLLiAM 
J. Widney, 1857-1858. — Anna M. Widney, 1859, mar- 
ried, 1896, John F. Shuster, of Geneva, Neb. — John J. 
Widney, 1861-1863. — Luella Widney, 1865, married, 
1887, Edwin H. Wilson, of Cherry Fork, Ohio, two chil- 
dren, John R., 1888, Robert Mc, 1890-1902. — Emma E. 
Widney, 1867, married, 1890, Frazier D. McClanahan, 
of Cherry Fork, Ohio, one child, Anna L., 1896. — Nora 
B. Widney, 1873, married, 1894, Orsin S. Blair, of Day- 
ton, Ohio, one child, Susan K., 1902. 

LUCINDA WIDNEY, married, 1857, David Cisney. 
Five children. Sarah B. Cisney, 1858, married, 1880, 



io6 THE CLAN LINN. 



Rev. William H. Bowden, New Paris, Pa., and had three 
children, Lucinda Elverda, 1881, Claude C, 1884, Sam- 
uel W., 1889. — Thomas McClellan Cisney, 1861, 
married, 1884, Frances Kline, of Burnt Cabins, Pa., and 
had six children, David Oren, 1886, Anna Ethel, 1891, 
Edna Mildred, 1893, Charles Newton, 1895-1900, Elmer 
Bruce, 1900, Lloyd Shumaker, 1904. — Martha Urilla 
Cisney, 1863, married, 1900, Frederick J. Rock, of New 
Paris, Pa., one child, George C, 1903. — Mary Etta Cis- 
ney, 1865, married, 1889, A. J. Cromer, of Hiram, Pa., 
and has three children, Harry Ellsworth, 1897, Nannie, 

1898, Margaret, 1900. — Margaret Holmes Cisney, 
1869. 

MARTHA WIDNEY, 1836, married, 1857, William 
H. Greene, of Lyndon, Kansas. Four children, Antha L. 
Greene, 1858-1880. — Elmer E. Greene, 1861, married, 
1891, Amanda J. Howell, Lyndon, Kansas, and has two 
children, Wilena A., 1892, Helena O., 1893. — Wilbur A. 
Greene, 1863. — Eleanor J. Greene, 1868-1872. 

MARY ANN WIDNEY, 1838, married, 1863, Samuel 
Book, of Shade Valley, Pa. Six children, Annie S. 
Book, 1864-1870. — Ella L. Book, 1868-1870. — Edmond 
D. Book, 1870, of Shade Valley, Pa., married Annie M. 
Rodgers, and has three children, Eva J., 1896, Harry R., 

1899, Herbert L., 1903. — William H. Book, of Blaine, 
Pa., 1873, married, 1897, Margaret Fleming, one child, 
Ruth, 1898. — Dr. Oscar S. W. Book, of Nepousett, 111., 
1876. — Elva E. Book, of Shade Valley, Pa., 1883. 

SAMUEL WIDNEY, of Burnt Cabins, Pa., married, 
Belle Lauthers, who died, 18 — . Married again, 18 — , 
Kate Yeater, one child, Martha Cornelia. 



JOHN LINN— JANE SCYOC. 107 

SARAH WIDNEY, 1842, married, 1865, Rev. Levi 
G. Heck, of Lock Haven, Pa. Three children, Albert 
Simpson Heck, of Coudersport, Pa., 1867, married, 1901, 
Matilda Raymond, and has two children (twins), How- 
ard Widney and Marjorie Raymond, 1902. — Ella Ger- 
trude Heck, 1870, married, 1903, Merritt S. Adams, of 
Watsontown, Pa. — William Widney Heck, 1875. 

WILLIAM WIDNEY, of Lyndon, Kansas, 1847, 
married, 1867, Isabella Ann Noss. Eight children, Wil- 
liam Linn Widney, of Fay, Oklahoma, 1868, married, 
1893, Emma Carpenter, and has five children, William, 
Earl, Nellie, Owen and Ethel. — Dr. George Beverly 
Widney, 1869-1899, married, 1895, Viola Van Dornstan, 
two children, Georgiana and Theodore Worth. — Isabella 
Coulter Widney, 1871-1886. — Annie Luella Widney, 
1873-1893. — Samuel Mussina Widney, 1874-1880. — 
Clara May Widney, 1876. — Dr. John T. Bland Wid- 
ney, 1878, of Kaw City, Oklahoma. — Mary Alice Wid- 
ney, 1884. 

ELLA WIDNEY, 185 1, married, 1872, John P. Mc- 
Math, of Blairs Mills, Pa. Three children, John S. Mc- 
Math, of Blairs Mills, Pa., 1873, married, 1897, Bessie 
Robertson, one child, Robert Dewey, 1898. — Mary Linn 
McMath, 1878. — Robert C. McMath, 1890. 



DESCENDANTS OF SARAH LINN 
AND JOHN SNYDER. 

JANE SNYDER, 1826-1870, married, 1849, Aaron 
Shore, 1819-1891. Eleven children, Amon Shore, 1850- 
1850. — Jimison Shore, of Marsailles, Mo., married El- 



108 THE CLAN LINN. 



len Davis, and has six children, John, Mark, Avery, 
George, Reuben and Clinton. — Lavinia Shore, 1853, 
married, 1872, W. H. Stockberger, who died, 1879, 
and had two children, Ollie Lee, 1874, and Valletta Alice, 
1877, married again, 1892, H. W. Heckler, of Hedrick, 
Iowa, one child, Bertha E., 1895. — Sarah Elizabeth 
Shore, 1854- 1870. — Millard Fillmore Shore, 1856, 
married Jennie McKenney, and has three children, 
Pearl, Mabel and Echo. — Amanda Shore, 1858-1859. — 
John Shore, 1860-1873. — Enoch Avery Shore, of Sa- 
vanna, 111., 1862, married Melissa Clark. — Mary Jane 
Shore, 1866-1904, married George W. Bowers, of Mead- 
ville, Mo. — Lucretia Shore, 1866- 1866. — Viola D. 
Shore, 1868, married Benjamin Shirk, of Sutherland, 
Iowa, and has seven children, Hattie, Isabel, Harold, 
Chester, Victor, Hugh, and Robert Palmer. 

SUSANNAH SNYDER, of Tiffin, Iowa, 1828, mar- 
ried, 185 1, Morris Brown. Seven children, Gilbert A. 
Brown, 1852, married, 1888, Emma Dodd, and has four 
children, Alvah, 1888, Ellsworth, 1891, Oscar, 1894, and 
Lola, 1896. — Ella Jane Brown, 1854-1856. — Robert E. 
Brown, 1856-1856. — Elizabeth Brown, 1859, married, 
1884, C. R. Dennison, of Grand Mound, Washington, 
and had four children, Susan, 1885, Nellie, 1887, Harry, 
1888- 1890, Merna, 1896. — Edwin M. Brown, of Tiffin, 
Iowa, 1861, married, 1887, Helen Cropley, and has one 
child, Edith, 1892. — Bruce Brown, of Tiffin, Iowa, 1863, 
married, 1890, Mary Bowers, and has seven children, 
Glenn, 1891, Leslie, 1892, Everett, 1894, Eldon, 1897, 
Philo, 1900, Eleanor, 1902, Bessie, 1904. — Clay Brown, 



JOHN LINN— JANE SCYOC. 109 

of Tiffin, Iowa, 1867, married, 1894, Emily Reeves, and 
has three children, Paul, Gilbert and Alton. 

ELIZABETH SNYDER, 1831-1878, married, 1852, 
Samuel Booker, 1828-1864. Seven children, Walter Ben- 
son Booker, of Danbury, Iowa, 1853, married, 1884, 
Lulu Arkey, and has two children, Edelph, 1885, and K. 
D., 1900. — Bower Booker, of Anson, Iowa, 1855, mar- 
ried, 1877, Cena Dennison, and has two children, Myrtle, 
1879, and Ray, 1882. — Blanche Booker, 1857, married, 

1877, John Robinson, of Panama, Iowa, and has seven 
children, Edward, 1879, Edna B., 1881, Pearl, 1883, 
John, 1886, Hulda, 1888, Ruth, 1892, Hash, 1895.— John 
Baxter Booker, of Percy, Iowa, 1859, married, 1889, 
Ruth Harris, and has three children, Ada Blanche, 1890, 
Elsie, 1892, Nellie, 1895. — Sarah Jane Booker, 1861, 
married, 1881, John Rink, of Shelby, Iowa, and has six 
children, Alfred, 1882, Robert K., 1883, Ora Esther, 
1885, Ernest, 1887, Leslie G., 1900, Bailee, 1902— El- 
dora Booker, 1863, married, 1882, Lemuel Osborne, of 
Shelby, Iowa, and has two children, Floyd, 1885, and 
Glenn, 1889. — Samuel Booker, of Danbury, Iowa, 1865, 
married, 1889, Ella Matin, and has five children, Eva, 
1890, Clayton, 1892, Etta, 1894, Alice, 1896, and Daisy, 
1898. 

MARTHA SNYDER, 1833-1865, married. 1853, John 
G. Stinson,who died 1903. Five children, Sarah E. Stin- 
son, 1854-1864. — Margaret E. Stinson, 1856, married, 

1878, D. Fraker, of McConnellsburg, Pa., and has three 
children, Vinnie M., 1878, married, 1899, A. S. Lang, 
son born 1900. Mary E., 1881, married, 1900, Harry 



iio THE CLAN LINN. 



Isenberg, and has two children, Margaret, 1901, Paul, 
1903, Nellie, 1887. — Isaac Stinson, 1858, married Mol- 
lie Graham, (rive children). — Rachel V. Stinson, 1860- 
1870. — John Wesley Stinson, 1863. 

HENRY T. SNYDER, 1836-1841. 

RACHEL B. SYNDER, 1839, married, 1864, William 
M. Brown, of Shelby, Iowa. Eight children, Lillietta 
Brown, 1865-1867. — Nannie Blanche Brown, 1866, 
married, 1895, W. H. Kilpatrick, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, 
and has one child, Esther, 1898. — Jeannette May 
Brown, 1868. — William Grant Brown, of Shelby, 
Iowa, 1871, married, 1901, Hattie Kearney, and has one 
child, Harold, 1904. — Charles Wesley Brown, 1873. — 
Robert Edmond Brown, of Shelby, Iowa, 1875, mar- 
ried, 1898, Ida Maxwell, and has one child, Robert, 1901. 
— Sarah Nellie Brown, 1877, married, 1903, Oscar 
Best, and has one child, Lela Orphea. — Lela Adella 
Brown, 1881, married, 1904, Ellis W. Cass, of Peoria, 
111. 

LUCINDA SNYDER, 1842, married, 1862, Levi 
Creamer, of Crete, Neb., who died, 1877. Two children, 
Albathetta Creamer, 1864- 1866, and George Cream- 
er, of Crete, Neb., 1872, who married, 1897, Belle Pat- 
terson, and has three children, Myrtle E., 1898, Elder W., 
1900, and Harley M., 1903. 

JOHN L. SNYDER, 1845-1846. 

WESLEY SNYDER, of Crete, Neb., 1847. 

JONATHAN K. SNYDER, of Moline, 111., 1849. 

HUGH LINN SNYDER, of Cameron, Mo., 1851, 
married Myra Dennison, 1875. Four children, Mabel 



JOHN LINN— JANE SCYOC. in 



Snyder, 1878, married, 1900, Herbert M. Fuller, of St. 
Joseph, Mo., and has two children (twins), 1901, Edith 
May and Gladys Opal, — Marcus Arthur Snyder, of 
Cameron, Mo., 1880, married, 1904, Myrtle Jordan. — 
Clifton Charles Snyder, 1882. — Bertha Ellen Sny- 
der, 1884. 



DESCENDANTS OF HUGH LINN 
AND MARY SAYLOR. 

JOHN S. LINN, 1838, deceased. 

CHARLES LINN, 1839- 1891. 

ELIZABETH LINN, 1840-1894. 

LUCINDA LINN, 1842, married, 1865, to Bartley 
Miller, of Purcell, Bedford County, Pa. 

RILEY LINN, 1844, of Robinsonville, Pa. 

SAMUEL LINN, 1845, deceased. 

WILLIAM LINN, of San Francisco, Cal., 1847. 

ALFRED LINN of Vienna X Roads Ohio 1848, mar- 
ried 1882 Rhoda Allender. Nine children. Thomas J. 
Linn 1882, married 1905 Edith Allender. — Grover C. 
Linn 1884-1884. — Mary P. Linn 1885, married 1905 
Leroy Asper. — Bessie Linn 1887-1897. — Katie Linn 
1889-1898. — James Linn 1892-1897. — Wilson Linn 
1896-1897. — Alfred Linn Jr. 1898. — Charlotte Linn 
1902. 

CATHERINE LINN, 1850-1894. 

MASON LINN, of Robinsonville, Pa., 1852, married, 

1899, Lida S. Tyson, and has two children, Mason C, 

1900, and Cora E., 1902. 



H2 THE CLAN LINN. 

CAMBRIDGE LINN, 1853-1892. 

MARY LINN, 1855-1890, married James Kinsey. 

ALEXANDER LINN, 1858-1897. 



DESCENDANTS OF JANE LINN 
AND JOHN PATTERSON WIDNEY. 

SAMUEL LINN WIDNEY, of St. Joe Station, In- 
diana, 1839, married, i860, Mary A. More. Five children, 
Marian Widney, 1861-1861. — Byron E. Widney, of 
St. Joe Station, 1862, married, 1884, Rosetta Sethler, and 
has one child, Edith, 1885. — Viola J. Widney, 1866, 
married, 1895, D. L. Carpenter, of St. Joe Station, and 
has three children, Darrel, 1896, Carroll, 1898, Paul, 
1901. — Otto Linn Widney, of Hicksville, Ohio, 1872, 
married, 1899, Bernice Vandegrift. — Iva Widney, 1876, 
married, 1899, Clarence S. Hart, of St. Joe. 

OLIVER HANNA WIDNEY, of St. Joe Station, 
Indiana, 1841, married, 1864, Emily F. Maxwell. Two 
children, H. Mervin Widney, of St. Joe, 1866, married, 
1886, and has two children, B. Von Dale, 1888, and Doris, 
1903. — Lenore Widney, 1881, married. 1899. Charles 
F. Kagey, of St. Joe, and has two children, Florence, 
1903, and G. Carlton, 1905. 

MELLISSA JOANNA PATTERSON WIDNEY 
1844-1885, married David C. Bodine, of Neodesha, Kan- 
sas. Two children, Carrie Bodine, married Delbert Hull, 
of Colorado Springs, Col., and has two children, How- 
ard and Geroldine. — Grace Bodine. 

CHARLES JEFFERSON WIDNEY, 1849-1869. 

ANGELINE WIDNEY, 1851-1851. 



JOHN LINN— JANE SCYOC. 113 

DESCENDANTS OF JOHN LINN 
AND ELIZA ROUSE. 

ALEXANDER MACLAY LINN, 1843-1847. 

RACHEL J. LINN, 1845, married, 1879, to David 
Woodward, who died 1881. Married again, 1882, David 
Seilhammer, of Orbisonia, Pa., one child, Lizzie Belle 
Seilhammer, 1885. 

JOHN ROBINSON LINN, of Maddensville, Pa., 

1847. 

CHARLES W. LINN, 1849-1865. 

GEORGE W. LINN, of Reed's Gap, Pa., 1851, mar- 
ried, 1882, Mary Woodward. 

AMOS J. LINN, 1853, married, 1881, Belle Wood- 
ward, both deceased. 

WILLIAM J. LINN, of Shade Gap, Pa., 1855, mar- 
ried, 1876, Laura P. Yocum. Thirteen children, Earl L. 
Linn, of Mt. Union, Pa., 1877, married, 1898, Anna 
Minerva Yocum, and has three children, Lawrence 
Evans, 1899-1900, Mary Faustina, 1901-1904, Caroline 
Elizabeth, 1904. — Eva L. Linn, 1879, married, 1897, 
Angus Peck, of Honey Grove, Pa. — John Orvill Linn, 
1881, married, 1900, Belle Yocum. — Benjamin O. Linn, 
1882.— Samuel A. Linn, 1884.— Della J. Linn, 1886. 
— Viola M. Linn, 1888, married, 1903, Rush Glunt, of 
Altoona, Pa. — Frank Marvill Linn, 1892. — Bertha 
Belle Linn, 1894. — James Paul Linn, 1896. — Wil- 
liam Dewey Linn, 1898. — Robert Ray Linn, 1900. — 
Ralph S. Linn, 1902. 

DAVID A. LINN, Warrior's Mark, Pa., 1859. 



114 THE CLAN LINN. 



LAURA B. LINN, 1861, married, 1885, George A. 
Potts, of Rockhill, Pa., and has six children, Howard 
Melvine Potts, 1885, — Grace Elizabeth Potts, 1887, 
— Chalmers Alexander Potts, 1890, — Robert Bruce 
Potts, 1892, — Benjamin Franklin Potts, 1895, — and 
Ethel Blanche Potts, 1897. 

SAMUEL R. LINN, of Shade Gap, Pa., 1865, mar- 
ried, 1885, Lucinda Renecker. Nine children, Ada R. 
Linn, 1886, — Ethel M. Linn, 1887, — Myrtle J. Linn, 
1 889- 1 894, — Carrie E. Linn, 1 890-1 891, — George G. 
Linn, 1892, — Charles W. Linn, 1894, — Rosa C. Linn, 
1898, — Herbert C. Linn, 1902, — and Grace L. Linn, 
1904. 

ISAAC McKENDREE LINN, 1867-1873. 



DESCENDANTS OF JAMES LINN 
AND HANNAH ROBERTS. 

ISAAC A. LINN, 1842-1863. 

OLIVER LINN, of South Bend, Washington, 1843. 

MALINDA LINN, 1845-1892, married, 1866, Thomas 
Dew. Ten children, Nancy J. Dew, 1867, married, 1887, 
Frederick C. Dwyer, of Centralia, Washington, and has 
five children, Minerva, 1888, Mary, 1889, Malinda, 1891, 
Lydia, 1893, and Jessie, 1895. — Sarah M. Dew, 1869, 
married, 1889, John Weight, of Nishnabotna, Mo., and 
has eight children, Edward E., 1890, Winfield, 1892, 
Henry W., 1894, John F., 1896, Mollie M., 1898, Arthur 
W., 1901, Annie and William (twins), 1904. — William 
J. Dew, of Arctic, Washington, 1871. — Lydia Dew, 



JOHN LINN— JANE SCYOC. 115 

1872, married, 1901, Arthur Gowling, of San Pedro, 
Cal. — George Dew, 1874-1875. — Mary E. Dew, 1876- 
1893. — Thomas Dew, of Arctic, Washington, 1878, mar- 
ried Elsie Lyken. — Hiram Dew, 1880-1893. — C. Llew- 
ellyn Dew, 1884-1885, — John C. Dew, 1891. 

MARY J. LINN, 1847, married, 1868, E. Davis, who 
died 1896. Children, Bertha Davis, 1874-1874. — Nellie 
Davis, 1879-1879. — Don A. Davis, 1885. Married again, 
1900, Jacob Knapp, of Linden, Iowa. 

TABITHA R. LINN, 1848, married, 1872, Frederick 
Gotter, of Scranton, Iowa. Ten children. Hannah A. 
Gotter, 1873, married, 1894, Henry A. McCullough, of 
Wilton, N. Dak., and has three children, Pearl, 1897, 
Russie, 1901, Mabel, 1904. — F. James Gotter, of Scran- 
ton, Iowa, 1875, married, 1900, Clara Cameron, and has 
two children, Florence, 1901, Estella, 1904. — Martha 
M. Gotter, 1878-1895, — John W. Gotter, of Roseburg, 
Oregon, 1880, — Benjamin J. Gotter, of Roseburg, 
Oregon, 1882, — Caleb H. Gotter, 1884, — Samuel A. 
Gotter, 1885, — Bertha J. Gotter, 1887, — Mary L. 
Gotter, 1890, — Elsie V. Gotter, 1893. 

ELEANOR LINN, 1850, married, 1874, Ernest H. 
P. A. Farr, of Bartlett, Nebraska. Seven children, Min- 
nie Ella Antoinette Farr, 1878, married, 1894, James 
Kitchen Sanford, of Ericson, Nebraska, and has six 
children, Albert Edward, 1895, Ernest Augusta, 1897, 
Walter William, 1898, Grace Leona, 1900, Hannah Ame- 
lia, 1902, and Otto Louis, 1904. — Florence Gertrude 
Farr, 1881, married, 1901, Ernest Sanford, Jr., of Bart- 



n6 THE CLAN LINN. 

lett, Nebraska, and has one child, Elsie Marjorie, 1903. — 
Louis Philip Farr, 1883, — Amelia Farr, 1885, — War- 
ner William Farr, 1887, — Lizetta Farr, 1888, — Ern- 
est Albert Victor Farr, 1892. 

SYLVESTER LINN, of South Bend, Washington, 
1857. 
SAMUEL R. LINN, 1853-1857. 

ALLEN LINN, of Cosmopolis, Washington, 1855, 
married, 1882, Alice Peterson. Three children, Leigh 
Linn, deceased, — Vera Linn, 1890, — and Vivian Linn, 
1894. 

JAMES A. LINN, of South Bend, Washington, 1857, 
married, 1894, Leah Hawk. Six children, Mary E. Linn, 
1895, — George A. Linn, 1896, — Ella A. Linn, 1898, — 
James O. Linn, 1900, — Lulu L. Linn, 1902, — Syl- 
vester W. Linn, 1904. 

SARAH P. LINN, of South Bend, Washington, 
1861. 

GEORGE W. LINN, of Glenwood, Iowa, 1863, 
married, 1888, Mattie Gardiner, two children, Charles 
W. Linn, 1889- 1896, — Minnie Linn, 1892. 

ALBERT W. LINN, South Bend, Washington, 1865. 

CYRUS R. LINN, of Arctic, Washington, 1867, mar- 
ried, 1896, Mary McChesney, who died 1896. Married 
again, 1899, Frances Musselman, and has three children, 
Charles Linn, 1900, — Hugh Linn, 1902, — and a 
daughter, 1904. 



JOHN LINN— JANE SCYOC. 117 

DESCENDANTS OF ELIZA LINN 
AND WILLIAM TAYLOR. 

RACHEL J. TAYLOR, of Hustontown, Pa., 1847. 

SARAH TAYLOR, 1850- 1885, married Daniel Gas- 
ter, seven children, Elizabeth, Bertha J., William B., 
Moreta B., Margaret, Myrtle May, and Sarah A. 

GEORGE TAYLOR, of Maddensville, Pa., 185 1. 

MARTHA TAYLOR, 1852, married, 1868, to Reuben 
Brown, of Maddensville, Pa., twelve children, Martha, 
William H., George, Howard, Ambrose, Ephraim, 
Elizabeth, Stella, Margaret, Catherine, Olive, and 
Annie. 

MARGARET TAYLOR, 1854, married, 1880, to 
Ephraim Nead, of Clear Ridge, Pa. 

WILLIAM TAYLOR, of Bruel, Keith County, Neb., 
married, 1885. 



SECTION IV. 

JFamtlg of Wtlltam ffitntt anti 



HUGH WILLIAM LINN. .1818-1900. . ..married 1840 

Mary Chadwick 1818 

Philadelphia, Pa. 

MARGARET LINN 1820- 1847. • ..married 1847 

James W. Linn 1825 

Pierce City, Mo. 



119 



120 THE CLAN LINN. 



DESCENDANTS OF HUGH WILLIAM LINN 
AND MARY CHADWICK. 

WILLIAM LINN, of Washington, D. C, 1842, mar- 
ried, 1864, Sarah Bridge, who died 1898. Married again, 
Mary Knox Vanarsdale, 1899, who died 1905. Four chil- 
dren. Samuel E. Linn, 1865-1896, married Sydney Ker- 
shaw, and had two children, Edna, 1887, an d Bertha, 
1889. — Ellwood Shannon Linn, 1868, married, 18 — , 
and has one child, Estelle. — William Linn, Jr., 1872- 
1904. — Ralph Linn, 1877- 1904. 

SAMUEL W. LINN, of Rochester, N. Y., 1843, mar- 
ried, 1885, Edith Lenore Willis, and has two children, 
Willis, 1887, and Benjamin F., 1889. 

MARY ANN LINN, 1847, married, 1867, William T. 
Adams, of Philadelphia. Two children, Hugh William 
Linn Adams, 1869-1892, — and Eliza H. Adams, 1871, 
who married, 1901, William H. Ward, and has one child, 
William G. Ward, 1903. 

THOMAS LINN, of Nice, France, 1845. 

JENNIE LINN, 1852-1874. 

HUGH J. LINN, of Buffalo, N. Y., 1850, who mar- 
ried, 1872, Mary E. Shaughney, and has one child, Lewis 
Fields Linn, of Buffalo, N. Y., 1883, who married, 
1905, Bertha Louisa Knight. 

BENJAMIN LINN, 1854-1893. 

MATTHEW LINN, 1857-1863. 



SECTION V. 

3ff amtUj af ilanj Sitm m\b Charge EnwB^rtbge 



GEO. LOUGHRIDGE 2d.. . 1812-18— 

ABRAHAM LOUGH- 
RIDGE 1813-1850. . ..married 1840 

Margaret Linn 1822 

West Side, Iowa. 

JOHN LOUGHRIDGE 18 — 18— 

WILLIAM LOUGHRIDGE. 1816-1891 . . .. married 1836 
Rachel Eavey 1812-1883 

HUGH LOUGHRID"GE. . . . 18 — 18— 

MARY LOUGHRIDGE. . . . 18 — 18— 

MARTHA LOUGHRIDGE. 18 — 18— 



121 



122 THE CLAN LINN. 



DESCENDANTS OF ABRAHAM LOUGHRIDGE 
AND MARGARET LINN. 

(See under family of Hugh Linn 2d and Ann Widney, p. 129.) 



DESCENDANTS OF WILLIAM LOUGHRIDGE 
AND RACHEL EAVEY. 

JACOB EAVEY LOUGHRIDGE, 1837-1895, mar- 
ried, 1871, Mary Rogers Barker, of Baltimore, Md., now 
of Philadelphia, Pa. Six children, Elizabeth Howard 
Loughridge, 1872, married, 1898, James Alexander 
Smith, now of Chambersburg, Pa., and has one child, 
James Alexander 2nd, 1899. — William Loughridge, 
1875, Philadelphia. — Jacob Eavey Loughridge 2nd, 
1877- 1895. — Mary Rogers Loughridge, 1880. — Charles 
Howard Loughridge, 1882. — Margaret Barker 
Loughridge, 1886. 

SUSAN MARGARET LOUGHRIDGE, 1840, mar- 
ried, i860, Edward Williams Barker, 1836-1900. Ad- 
dress, Llanerch, Delaware Co., Pa. Six children, Mary 
Barker, 1861. — Ellen Barker, 1862, married, 1895, 
Thomas Childs Woodbury, Captain 16th Infantry, U. S. 
Army, now (1905) Colonel 3rd Infantry U. S. 
Army at Fort Seward, Haines Mission, Alaska, and has 
one child, Margaret Barker, 1896. — William Lough- 
ridge Barker, 1864. — Margaret Linn Barker, 1866- 
1871. — Ruth Barker, 1867-1872. — John Barker, of 
Ashbourne, Pa., 1869, married, 1893, Susan Armistead 
Randolph, of Alexandria, Va., and has one child, Edward 
Williams Barker, 2nd, 1895. 



MARY LINN— GEORGE LOUGHRIDGE. 123 

MARY ELLEN LOUGHRIDGE, married, 1871, 
Alexander Neill, of Hagerstown, Md. Six children, 
Josephine Neill, 1872, died in childhood. — Mary Nel- 
son Neill, 1873, married, 1894, Charles Henry Folwell, 
of Mt. Holly, N. J., and has two children, Charles Henry, 
2nd, 1895, and Elinor Neill, 1902. — Alexander Neill, 
2nd, 1875. — Elinor Neill, 1878, died in childhood. — 
Margaret Barker Neill, 1880, Hagerstown, Md. — 
Harriet Burrows Neill, 1884, died in childhood. 

RACHEL JOSEPHINE LOUGHRIDGE, 1846- 
1858. 



SECTION VI. 



Jfamthj of ijwjfy Sttttt 2t\b anfo Atttt M&tmj. 



JAMES WIDNEY LINN . .1809-1864. . ..married 1836 

Mary Wilds 1811-1861 

HUGH W. LINN 181 1-1820 

SARAH ANN LINN 1814-1896. . . .married 1838 

Samuel Henry 1808-1880 

MARY LINN 1816-1896. . . .married 1848 

Samuel Booher 
JANE LINN 1818-1903 . . . .married 1837 

A. Jackson Taylor 1815-1883 

JOHN LINN 1820-1895 . . . .married 1849 

Margaret Hays 1820-1890 

MARGARET LINN 1822 married 1840 

Abraham Loughridge ..1813-1850 

West Side, Iowa. 

HUGH LINN 1824-1849 

ALEXANDER E. LINN. . .1826-1902. . ..married 1852 

Matilda Shaver 1823 

Bellwood, Pa. 

ARABELLA M. LINN. . . . 1828 married 1850 

William M. Bloom 1824-1888 

Las Vegas, N. M. 

ELEANOR P. LINN 183 1- 1905. . ..married 1850 

William Typer 1826 

Polo, Illinois. 

125 



126 THE CLAN LINN. 

DESCENDANTS OF JAMES WIDNEY LINN 
AND MARY WILDS. 

JOHN WESLEY LINN, 1837-1862. 

HUGH WILLIAM LINN, 1839, St. Louis, Mo. 

ANN WIDNEY LINN, 1842-1846. 

GEORGE WILDS LINN, 1844, married 1878 Naomi 
Anderson Fisher, of Bryn Mawr, Pa. 

KEZIA McCUNE LINN, 1848-1864. 

Permanent address of George Wilds Linn, Bryn Mawr, 
Pa. (Present address, Berwyn, Pa.) 



DESCENDANTS OF SARAH ANN LINN 
AND SAMUEL HENRY. 

DR. WILLIAM HENRY, of Harmon, Illinois, 1839, 
married, 1870, Annie S. Miller. Two children, Daisy 
Belle, 1878-1888, and William F., 1882-1905. 

HESTER A. HENRY, of Polo, Illinois, 1841. 

HUGH LINN HENRY, of Edgerton, Kansas, 1845, 
married, 1867, Martha Davis. Four children, Mary 
Henry, 1868, married, 1889, Ira E. Campbell, of Edger- 
ton, Kansas, and has two children, Lola A. and Claude H. 
— Margaret Henry, 1871, married, 1895, Frank H. 
Stevenson, of Wellsville, Kansas, and has three children, 
Glyde Irene, 1896, Otis Linn, 1900, and Walter Eugene, 
I 9°3- — Walter Henry, 1874, of Wellsville, Kansas, 
married, 1895, Belle Black.— Roy Linn Henry, 1889. 

MARGARET HENRY, of Polo, Illinois, 1847. 

MARY JANE HENRY, 1850, married, 1872, Milton 
Woolhiser, of Mills, Nebraska. Eight children, Albert 



HUGH LINN 2d— ANN WIDNEY. 127 

Woolhiser, 1873, married, 1904, Jennie Smothers. — 
Eva May Woolhiser, 1875, married, 1893, John Wyatt, 
of Springview, Nebraska, and has two children, Milton 
Tarry, 1894, and Ella May, 1904. — Walter Woolhiser, 
1878. — Grace Woolhiser, 1880, married, 1903, James 
Ogden, of Mills, Nebraska. — Della Woolhiser, 1882, 
married, 1903, Clyde Libolt, of Mills, Nebraska, and has 
one child, Bertie Bryan. — Roy Edmond Woolhiser, 1884. 
— Joseph Woolhiser, 1887. — Clara Woolhiser, 1889. 

JOHN HENRY, of Polo, Illinois, 1854. 

JAMES HENRY, of Polo, Illinois, 1858, married, 
1883, Amanda Cox. (Son) Charles Elmer Linn 
Henry. 



DESCENDANTS OF MARY LINN 
AND SAMUEL BOOHER. 

ARABELLA BOOHER, 1849-1885. 
JENNIE BOOHER, 1855-1889. 
MARGARET BOOHER, 1859-1886. 
ALEXANDER BOOHER. 



DESCENDANTS OF JANE LINN 
AND A. JACKSON TAYLOR. 

JOHN TEMPLETON TAYLOR, of Chicago, 111., 
1838, married, 1866, Margaret Kline. — Four children, 
M ah ala K. Taylor, 1869, married, 1887, Frank C. 
Stolp, Chicago, and had four children, Benjamin, 1888- 
1893, Roy, 1890, lone and Irene (twins), 1895. — John 
T. Taylor, Jr., 1872, married, 1893, Effie Brunson, and 



128 THE CLAN LINN. 



has one child, Marian, 1894. — Horace K. Taylor, Chi- 
cago, 1875, married, 1897, Ada Gardner, and has two 
children, Bernice, 1899, Verdel, 1902. — Henry Taylor, 
Chicago, 1880. 

ANN I. TAYLOR, 1840, married, 1862, Charles W. 
Widney, of Concord, Pa. — Nine children, Wilbur J., 
1862-1883, — Carrie D., 1865, — Mollie L., 1866-1894, — 
Jennie L., 1868-1875, — Howard T., 1870, — Nannie L., 
1872-1876, — John L., 1875, — Charles W., 1879, — 
Bruce C, 1882. 

MARGARET E. TAYLOR, 1843, married, i860, 
Robert Finley, of Concord, Pa. — Six children, Harry, 
1 861, — Samuel, 1863-1863, — Grace May, 1866, — Ella 
K., 1870, — Cleo D., 1872, — Jane B., 1878. 

MARY L. TAYLOR, 1845, married, 1869, John Fra- 
zey, of Shelby, Iowa. — Seven children, Margaret, 1870- 
1870, — Bert, 1871, — Harry, 1873, — Sarah L., 1875, 
married, 1893, Carl E. Altenbern, — Olive C, 1877, — 
August E., 1882, — Julia E., 1885. 

SAMUEL W. TAYLOR, of Eugene City, Oregon 
(the youngest veteran of the Civil War in that State), 
1848, married, 1873, Florence Hall. — Five children, Har- 
riet Linn, 1874, married, 1903, Ralph G. Starr, — 
Blanche Marian, 1878, married, 1903, Samuel T. 
Thurston, — George Mead, 1880, — Charles Jackson, 
1 883- 1 887,— Phil Sheridan, 1888-1889. 

ELIZABETH M. TAYLOR, 185 1, married, 1879, 
Leonard Cogswell, of Boone, Iowa. — Two children, 
Herbert Leonard, 1880, who married, 1904, Ida M. 
Heyer, and Marcia Elizabeth, 1889. 



HUGH LINN 2d— ANN .WIDNEY. 129 

CHALMERS B. TAYLOR, of Joliet, Illinois, 1858, 
married, 1889, Cassie L. Arter. — Three children, Arnold 
C, 1892-1894, — Leroy P., 1894, — Ira M., 1900. 

WILLIAM J. TAYLOR, of Savanna, Illinois, 1863, 
married, 1887, Celestia Tomlinson. — Two children, Wil- 
liam Harold, 1888, and Ethel Vianna, 1891. 



DESCENDANTS OF MARGARET LINN 
AND ABRAHAM LOUGHRIDGE. 

ANN LOUGHRIDGE, of West Side, Iowa, 1842, 
married, 1876, Dyer Porter DeWitt. 

LINN LOUGHRIDGE, of Cotter, Arkansas, 1844, 
married, 1866, Jennie Pike. — Nine children, Margaret 
Ann, 1866, — Ferdinand, 1869-1886, — Mary Bell, 1871, 
married, 1897, James J. Sinclair, of Stephen, Minnesota, 
and has two children, Linn James, 1898, and Donavan 
John, 1899. — William ]., 1874-1904. — Grace Odelia, 
1876, married, 1895, Frederick L. Case, of South Med- 
ford, Assin., Canada. — Milton E. G., 1879. — Bertha 
Virginia, 1881, — Earl Clarence, 1884, — Eunice 
Pearl, 1886. 

MARY LOUGHRIDGE, 1848, married, 1868, John 
J. Woolhiser, of West Side, Iowa. — Six children, Ella 
Woolhiser, 1868, married, 1890, T. C. Marsh, of Oma- 
ha, Nebraska, and has four children, Charles Berwick, 
1891, Ian Dawson, 1896, Dorothy Margaret, 1900, and 
Mary Alice, 1902. — Annie Woolhiser, 1871, married, 
1901, Morris S. Linn, of Carroll, Nebraska, and has two 
children, Homer, 1903, and Morrison Wesley, 1904. — 
Marba Woolhiser, 1875, married, 1898, Charles J. Mai- 



130 THE CLAN LINN. 



lette, of Lake City, Iowa, and has three children, George 
Earl, 1899, Verne J., 1901, and Marsh Linn, 1903. — 
Lulu Woolhiser, 1879, — Alice Woolhiser, 1882, — 
John Linn Woolhiser, 1889. 

ABRAHAM LOUGHRIDGE, of Alderson, I. T., 
1850, married, 1872, Maryett Sturdevant. — Six children, 
Ada Loughridge, 1873, — Edna Loughridge, 1875, — 
Orlinn Loughridge, of Chisimville, Ark., 1877, mar- 
ried, 1898, Rosa Young, and has one child, Mamie, 1902. 
— Jessie Loughridge, 1879, married, 1901, Robert Wil- 
liams, of Shawnee, Okla., and has one child, Velma, 1902. 
— Alice Loughridge, 1883, married, 1902, Robert Pat- 
terson, of Alderson, I. T., and has one child, Roy, 1904. — 
Annie Loughridge, 1887. 



DESCENDANTS OF DR. ALEXANDER ERWIN 
LINN AND MATILDA SHAVER. 

CLARA ELLEN LINN, 1854, married, 1876, Wil- 
liam B. Dysart, of Bellwood, Pa. — Eight children, 
Charles Linn, 1878-1879. — William A., 1879, married, 
1904, to Fay Carse. — Bessie Clyde, 1881, married, 1903. 
Witmer Breneman, of Bellwood, Pa., and has one child, 
Hugh Herbert. — Susan Matilda, 1883, married, 1905, 
to Harry L. Hagerty. — John Edwin, 1885- 1898. — Rus- 
sell Baldwin, 1887, — Roy Baker, 1891-1894, — Ralph 
Morrow, 1896. 

JOHN ALEXANDER WATSON LINN, 1855-1896, 
married, 1886, Katherine Alice Dobbins, of Long Beach, 
California, and had five children, Hugh Dobbins, 1888, 
— Helen May, 1889, — William Mason, 1890- 1890, — 
Horace, 1892-1892, — Edith Hortense, 1894. 



HUGH LINN 2d— ANN WIDNEY. 131 

WILLIAM HOWARD LINN, of El Dorado, Kansas, 
1856, married, 1885, Alice Minor. — Ten children, George 
Howard, 1886, — Clarence I., 1887, — Erwin Sylves- 
ter, 1889, — Paul Raymond, 1890, — Jessie Clayton, 
1892, — Ruth, 1894, — Esther Matilda, 1896, — Ellen 
Naomi, 1898, — Grace Bell, 1899, — John Alexander, 
1903. 

GEORGE EDWIN LINN, of Denver, Colorado, 
1858, married, 1883, Louisa Catt. — Seven children, Cora 
June, 1884, — Rota Leta, 1887, — Vera May, 1888, — 
Harold Catt, 1889, — Ruhe Valentine, 1894, — Low- 
ell Livingston, 1901, — Ellice Edwina, 1903. 

MORRISON SHAVER LINN, of Carroll, Nebraska, 
i860, married, 1890, Melissa Way, who died, 1898. — 
Children, Edwin Clayton, 1892-1892, — Clara Louise, 
1893, — Mabel, 1895, — Eunice, 1896, — twins, 1898- 
1898. — Married again, 1901, Annie M. Woolhiser. — Two 
children, Homer, 1903, — Morrison Wesley, 1904. 

JUNIE M. LINN, 1863, married, 1892, G. W. Smith, 
of Edgewater, Colorado. — Three children, Mildred 
Linn, 1894, — Irene Matilda, 1898, — Lois Mae, 1904. 



DESCENDANTS OF ARABELLA MACLAY 
LINN AND WILLIAM M. BLOOM. 

ANNA M. BLOOM, married Dr. Shout, of Las 
Vegas, New Mexico. 

CHARLES BLOOM, of Las Vegas. 

AMANDA BLOOM, married Winters, of 

Las Vegas, and has two children. 

Four children, ELLA, JAMES, WARREN and 
WILLIAM BLOOM, are deceased. 



132 THE CLAN LINN. 

DESCENDANTS OF ELEANOR POMEROY 
LINN AND WILLIAM TYPER. 

ANNA REBECCA TYPER, 1853, married, 1871, 
Aaron Sanford, of Rolfe, Iowa. — Ten children, Ger- 
trude, 1873, wno married, 1900, George Sandy, and has 
one child, Clifford, 1900, — Elizabeth, 1874-1875, — 
Homer Allen, 1878, — Minnie, 1879-1879, — Vernie, 
1880-1882, — Andrew Earnest, 1882, who married, 
1901, Belle Peterson, and had one child, Elizabeth, 1902- 
1902,— Rosa, 1885-1885,— Arthur, 1889,— Hazel, 1892, 
— Leydy, 1895. 

JOHN L. TYPER, of El Paso, Texas, 1855, married 
Mary Robinson. — Five children, William, Bessie, 
Archie, Harry, Elmira. 

LUCINDA TYPER, 1858-1858. 

PRESTON TYPER, 1859-1882. 

ANDREW CAMPBELL TYPER, of Hampton, 
Iowa, who married, 1888, Nellie Isadore Stonebraker. — 
Three children, Lelah Eleanor, 1890, — Joe Harrison, 
1891, — Ethel Marsh, 1901. 

LINCOLN H. TYPER, of Neceda, Wisconsin, 1864, 
married Matilda Mallon. 

HARRY TYPER, of Polo, Illinois, 1867. 

WILLIAM H. TYPER, of Polo, Illinois, 1870, mar- 
ried, 1896, and has three children, Glenn Edouard, 
1897, — Ruth Claire, 1899, — Donald Marsh, 1904. 

ELLA TYPER, 1873-1890. 

CHANCEFORD TYPER, 1877, Leader, Wyoming. 



SECTION VII. 

Stonily of Jam?0 Ettttt, att& Nattrg Snuljer. 

CASPER B. LINN 1820-1862. . ..married 1846 

Elizabeth Lauther 1829 

Winchester, Va. 

JOHN LINN 1822-1874 

JAMES W. LINN 1825 . . . .married 1847 

Margaret Linn 1820-1847 

again married 1855 

Sarah Chilcoat 

Pierce City, Mo. 

JANE LINN 1830-1859. . ..married 1856 

Charles W. Evans 

Maddensville, Pa. 

HUGH LINN 1 832- 1 894.... married 1861 

Carrie Feight 

Shelby, Iowa. 

SAMUEL B. LINN 1836 . . . .married 1865 

Jane G. Keagy 1836 

Shelby, Iowa. 

JACOB B. LINN 1839-1893 . . . .married 1864 

Hester A. Chilcoat 1835 

Shelby, Iowa. 



i33 



134 THE CLAN LINN. 



DESCENDANTS OF CASPAR B. LINN 
AND ELIZABETH LAUTHER. 

JANE LINN, 1850-1887, married Alexander Miller. 

JAMES L. LINN, 1852-1893, married, 1884. Leah 
Catherine Byerly. — Four children, Alice E., 1884, mar- 
ried, 1904, Harry I. Sell, of Table, Neb., — Arlo, 1885, — 
George, 1887, — Frederick, 1888, all of Table, Nebraska. 

LETTIE LINN, 1855, married, 1880, William Hollar, 
of Winchester, Virginia. — Six children, Maud, 1880, — 
Daisy, 1883, — Allyn, 1886, — Ottie, 1889, — Blanche, 
1892, — Virginia, 1897. 

NANNIE LINN, 1858, married, 1878, Benjamin 
Bringolf, of Tacoma, Washington. — Four children, Ella, 
1879, — Harry, 1881, — George, 1883, — Walter, 1890. 

CASPAR LINN, 1861. 



DESCENDANTS OF JAMES W. LINN 
AND SARAH CHILCOAT. 

MARGARET A. LINN, 1857, married, 1885, G. T. 
Hatton, of Sydney, Iowa, and has one child, Charles 
Mearl, 1886. 

CARRIE LINN, i860, Pierce City, Missouri. 

NANNIE J. LINN, 1861, married, 1879, Joshua 
Robertson, of Diller, Nebraska. — Four children, Lelia, 
1880, — Claire, 1883, — Elva, 1885, — William, 1888. 

ADDIE LINN, 1864, married, 1892, J. E. Coppock, 
of Pierce City, Missouri. 

JAMES R. LINN, of Salem, Oregon, 1867, married, 
1894, Louella Wright. — Two children, Francis, 1896, — 
Paula, 1898. 



JAMES LINN— NANCY BOOHER. 135 



DESCENDANTS OF JANE LINN 
AND CHARLES W. EVANS. 

LENA EVANS, 1857, married, 1875, Lemuel Cut- 
shall, of Shelby, Iowa. — Six children, Harvey, 1876, — 
Elsie, 1877,— Lewis, 1880,— Nora Edith, 1884, — Ida 
Vera, 1886, — Owen L., 1894. 

EXIMENA EVANS, 1859, married, 1883, C. J. Ever- 
ton, of Emon, Washington. — One child, Clare, 1894. 



DESCENDANTS OF REV. HUGH LINN 
AND CARRIE FEIGHT. 

NANNIE V., 1862-1882. 
ROBERTA, 1865- 1883. 
FLORENCE K., 1867-1882. 
EFFIE BLANCHE, 1870-1882. 



DESCENDANTS OF SAMUEL B. LINN 
AND JANE G. KEAGY. 

LUELLA V. LINN, 1866, married, 1892, Dr. Albert 
S. Stevens, of Hancock, Iowa. — Four children, Ralph 
L., 1893, — Marie E., 1895, — Lee C, 1900, — Esther, 
1902. 

MARIETTA K. LINN, 1869-1885. 

N. ELIZABETH LINN, of Shelby, Iowa, 1871. 

SAMUEL H. LINN, 1875-1900. 



136 THE CLAN LINN. 



DESCENDANTS OF JACOB B. LINN 
AND HESTER CHILCOAT. 

AMBROSE B. LINN, of Howell, Dakota, 1865, mar- 
ried, 1891, Alice Kilpatrick. — One child, Hester, 1892. 

McKENDREE LINN, of Shelby, Iowa, 1867. 

MONROE LINN, of Shelby, Iowa, 1869, married, 
1898, Emma Davis. — Two children, Bessie, 1899, — 
Glenn, 1900. 

ANNA L. LINN, 1870-1905, married, 1890, Orin S. 
Best, of Shelby, Iowa. — Three children, Laura, 1892, — 
Arthur, 1894, — Edith, 1898. 

WALTER LINN, of Rapid City, South Dakota, 1871. 

M. C. FRANKLIN LINN, of Shelby, Iowa, 1873, 
married, 1898, Lizzie Walker. — Three children, Harvey, 
1899, — Dwight, 1 901, — Gladys, 1902. 

HUGH LINN, 1878. 



SECTION VIII. 

Jfamtlg of Mm IGtttn nnh Sohert (Eampbell. 

JAMES CAMPBELL 1819-1851. ...married 18— 

Eliza Gilleland. 

HUGH CAMPBELL 1821-1864. . . .married 18— 

Mary Bratton Jenkins. 

ANN ELIZA CAMPBELL.. 1824-1852. . ..married 1852 
John Hays. 

MARTHA CAMPBELL.... 1827 ....married 1851 

Charles McLaughlin. ... 1824- 1887 

Omaha, Neb. 

MARY JANE CAMPBELL.1829-1889. . ..married 1850 
Isaac Bratton 1824-1901 

NANCY WIDNEY CAMP- 
BELL 1832-1895 married i860 

William Buckley 1834 

Shelby, Iowa. 

JOHN CAMPBELL 1834-1900. . ..married 18— 

Catherine (Harris) Cook. 

Mineral de O'Campo, Mex. 



137 



138 THE CLAN LINN. 



DESCENDANTS OF JAMES CAMPBELL 
AND ELIZA GILLELAND. 

ROBERT CAMPBELL. 
MARTHA (CAMPBELL) BANTA. 



DESCENDANTS OF ANN ELIZA CAMPBELL 
AND JOHN HAYS. 

ANNA E. HAYS, 1852, married, 1874, James Lauth- 
ers, of Doylesburg, Penn'a. — Four children, Sadie E. 
Lauthers, 1876, married, 1902, William E. Rutter. — 
Mary E. Lauthers, 1878- 1881. — John H. Lauthers, 
1880, married, 1904, Myrtle Clugstone. — Margaret L. 
Lauthers, 1885. 



DESCENDANTS OF MARTHA CAMPBELL 
AND CHARLES McLAUGHLIN. 

JOHN L. McLAUGHLIN, 1852-1873. 

ROBERT CHARLES McLAUGHLIN, of Mapleton, 
Iowa, 1854, married, 1893, Clara Bittle. 

SARA JANE McLAUGHLIN, 1856-1879, married, 
1878, Charles C. Boget, of Garden City, Kansas. — One 
child, Lottie Prune, 1879, married to Clinton Roberts, 
of Lindsey, Cal., and has two children, Martha Margue- 
rite, 1900, and Richard Theodore, 1902. 

EPHRAIM ACKERS McLAUGHLIN, of Omaha, 
Nebraska, 1859, married, 1886, Clara Escher, and has 
one child, Grace Louise, 1887. 



JANE LINN— ROBERT CAMPBELL. 139 

HUGH WILLIAM McLAUGHLIN, of Shelby, 
Iowa, 1 86 1, married, 1897, Myrta Buckley, and has one 
child, Vet a, 1904. 

MARTHA MATILDA McLAUGHLIN, 1863-1880. 

ELLSWORTH CAMPBELL McLAUGHLIN, of 
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, married, 1889, Stella 
Springer, and has five children, Charles, 1890, — 
Blanche, 1892, — Constance, 1898, — Ione, 1900, — 
John Harold, 1905. 

LAURA BUCKLEY McLAUGHLIN, 1870, married, 
1892, Daniel Ralph Ennis, of Omaha, Neb., and has three 
children, Carol Hope, 1895, — Charles McLaughlin, 
1897, — Evelyn Claire, 1903. 



DESCENDANTS OF MARY JANE CAMPBELL 
AND ISAAC BRATTON. 

ELIZA BRATTON, 1851-1899, married, 1868, David 
Winegardner, of Dublin Mills, Penn'a. 

HANNAH J. BRATTON, 1853-1853. 

MARTHA E. BRATTON, 1854-1855. 

MARY JUNIATA BRATTON, 1856, married, 1873, 
Huston, of Hustontown, Penn'a. — Seven chil- 
dren, Mary Jane, 1876,— Isaac Roberts, 1877,— Lilly 
May, i 880- i 882, —Elizabeth Matilda, 1882,— Thomas 
Emory, 1886,— Earl Basil, 1895,— Ada Grace, 1900. 

MARGARET E. BRATTON, 1859-1859. 

ROBERT CAMPBELL BRATTON, of Dublin Mills, 
Pa., i860. 



i 4 o THE CLAN LINN. 



ISAAC HUNTER BRATTON. 1862-1880. 

MATILDA WIDNEY BRATTON, 1862, married, 
1881, Hurley, of Lewistown, Penn'a. 

CATHERINE R. BRATTON, 1866, married, 1887, 
Wagner, of Hustontown, Penn'a. 

HANNAH J. BRATTON, 1868, married, 1886, 
Gracey, of Gracey, Penn'a. 



LILY MAY BRATTON, 1872- 1874. 



DESCENDANTS OF NANCY WIDNEY CAMP- 
BELL AND WILLIAM BUCKLEY. 

WILLIAM BREWSTER BUCKLEY, of Mapleton, 
Iowa, 1865, married, 1891, Eva A. Evans. — Two children, 
Cecil Marie, 1893-1894, — Neill E., 1905. 

CHARLES EVERETT BUCKLEY, of Anamosa, 
Iowa, 1872, married, 1898, Elizabeth E. McDowell, and 
has two children, James Everett, 1900, and Helen 
Elizabeth, 1903. 

Only descendant of John Campbell and Catherine 
(Harris) Cook is THEODORE CUSHING CAMP- 
BELL, of Mineral de O'Campo, Mexico. 



SECTION IX. 

3FamUy of Nattry Extra attb ijwjlj Hallar?. 

JOHN WALLACE 182 1- 1903. . ..married 1848 

Elizabeth Berry 1828-1902 

MARY ANN WALLACE. .1824-1854. . ..married 1848 
William Ewing. 

SARAH WALLACE 1 827-1901 

HENRY WALLACE 1830-1863 

MARGARET JANE WAL- 
LACE 1834-1899. . ..married 1857 

George Washington Dev- 
enny. 

Cox, Okl. Ter. 

HUGH WALLACE 1838- 1904. . ..married 1872 

Sarah Ann Stake. 

Concord, Penn'a. 

NANCY WALLACE 1843 



141 



142 THE CLAN LINN. 



DESCENDANTS OF JOHN WALLACE 
AND ELIZABETH BERRY. 

MARY J. WALLACE, 1849, married, 1867, J. H. 
Chase, of Talmadge, Kansas. — Six children, G. Stacy 
Chase, of Solomon, Kansas, married, 1892, Lillie E. 
Miller, and has three children, Justus Harvey, 1893, Ethel 
G., 1896, and Leslie R., 1899. — Jennie E. Chase, 1873, 
married, 1893, W. D. Whitney, of Niles, Kansas. — Eliz- 
abeth Chase, 1876, married, 1896, Thomas Iliff, who 
died, 1902. — Arthur E. Chase. 1882, — Nettie M. 
Chase. 1891, — Gilbert J. Chase, 1892. 

HUGH WALLACE, 1852-1899. 

JOHN EDWARD WALLACE, of Abilene, Kansas, 
1859. married, 1881, Mary E. Britt. — Five children, 
J. H. Wallace, 1882, — L. Edna Wallace, 1884, — E. 
Gertrude Wallace, 1886, — J. Owen Wallace, 1892, — 
V. Elva Wallace, 1895. 

WILLIAM R. WALLACE, of Junction City, Kansas, 
1866, married, 1889, Margaret Devon, and has two chil- 
dren, John P. Wallace, 1894, — Myrtle Wallace, 
1896. 

ELIZABETH B. WALLACE, 1868, married, 1887, 
William McCluskey, of Junction City, Kansas. — One 
child, Mary E., 1891. 



DESCENDANTS OF MARY ANN WALLACE 
AND WILLIAM EWING. 

HUGH W. EWING, of McConnellsburg, Penn'a., 
1849. married 1872, Margaretta E. Scott, who died, 1904. 
— Two children, Rebecca J. Ewing, 1873, married, 1896, 



NANCY LINN— HUGH WALLACE. 143 

Nicholas T. Finniff, and has three children, Cloyd S. E., 
1896, Margaretta E., 1898, and Charlotte M., 1900. — 
Mary A. E. Ewing, 1875. 

ANN EWING, 1852-1854. 

JOHN G. EWING, of Harrisonville, Penn'a., 1854, 
married, 1902, Mary Ellen Deshong. — One child, Ar- 
thur Mosser Floyd, 1902. 



DESCENDANTS OF MARGARET J. WALLACE 
AND G. W. DEVENNEY. 

HENRY W. DEVENNEY, of Dwight, Kansas, 
i860, married, 1883, Viola Crist, and has six children. 

NANCY J. DEVENNEY, 1862, married, 1883, Jonah 
Tracy, of Cox, Okla., and has two children. 

MARIA DEVENNEY, 1864, married John B. Eb- 
butt, of Dwight, Kansas, and has three children. 

JOHN W. DEVENNEY, of Ponca, Ind. Ter., 1870. 

GEORGE J. DEVENNEY, of Coger, Okla., 1872, 
married, 1897, Sophia Johnson, and has three children. 

ROBERT E. DEVENNEY, of Ponca, Ind. Ter., 1875, 
married, 1895, Mary Johnson, and has four children. 

ROLAND E. DEVENNEY, of Dwight, Kansas, 

1879- 

DESCENDANTS OF HUGH WALLACE 
AND SARAH ANN STAKE. 

HARRIET WALLACE, 1874, married, 1896, William 
Shearer, of Spring Run, Penn'a.— One child, Nellie 

LORENE, 1899. 

EMMA WALLACE, of Concord, Penn'a. 




HUGH LINN 2nd 
In his Eightieth Year (1864) 




ANN (WIDNEY) LINN 
In her Eightieth Year (1864) 



PART III. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Hugh Linn 2d and Ann (Widney) Linn 151 

James Widney Linn and Mary (Wilds) Linn 158 

Sarah (Linn) Henry and Samuel Henry 162 

Jane (Linn) Taylor and A. Jackson Taylor 164 

John Linn and Margaret (Hays) Linn 166 

Margaret (Linn) Loughridge 167 

Dr. Alexander Erwin Linn and Matilda (Shaver) Linn 169 

Eleanor (Linn) Typer and William Typer 172 

James Linn and Nancy (Booher) Linn 174 

Caspar B. Linn l 75 

James W. Linn and Sarah (Chilcoat) Linn 175 

Rev. Hugh Linn 176 

Samuel B. Linn and Jane (Keagy) Linn 177 

Jacob B. Linn and Hester (Chilcoat) Linn 180 

Mary (Linn) Loughridge and George Loughridge 183 

William Loughridge J 85 

Charles Linn J 88 

Sarah (Linn) Snyder ^9 

Jane (Linn) Widney and John Patterson Widney 190 

James Linn and Hannah (Roberts) Linn 192 



PAGE 



Hugh William Linn and Mary (Chadwick) Linn 194 

Dr. Samuel H. Linn 194 

Dr. Thomas Linn !g<5 

Dr. Hugh J. Linn igy 

Jane (Linn) Campbell and Robert Campbell 198 

Nancy (Linn) Wallace 200 

John Wallace 200 

Hugh Wallace and Sarah Ann (Stake) Wallace 201 

Dr. George Wilds Linn 203 






Semarkfi. 

An effort has been made to procure biographical notes 
of all who were heads of families in the second and third 
generations. It was not found possible to secure sketches 
of several whose lives deserved notice in this connection, 
especially those of Abraham Loughridge, husband of 
Margaret (Linn) Loughridge; Martha (Linn) Widney; 
Arabella (Linn) Bloom and her husband, William M. 
Bloom; Eliza (Linn) Taylor; and Hugh and John Linn 
(sons of Charles Linn). 

No one can regret more than the writer these un- 
avoidable omissions. Correspondence with those most 
nearly related to the parties named above, failed to elicit 
the information desired, and we must be content to 
present the following pages in a less complete form than 
we had desired. G. w. L. 



ii 



fttnij IGitttt Zb 

ait& 

Attn (Hiatus) IGtnn 

HUGH LINN 2d was born in the Province of Ulster, 
County Down, Ireland, May 10, 1785, and died April 3d, 
1870, aged almost eighty-five years. When three years 
old he was brought by his parents, Hugh Linn and Sarah 
(Widney) Linn, to America, with a brother, John, aged 
ten years, and sister, Mary, six years old. They settled 
near the site of the village of Concord, Franklin (then 
Cumberland) County, Pennsylvania, in what was then a 
wilderness. 

Reared as he was in the backwoods life assumed for 
him a very practical aspect. The stern demands of im- 
perative duty left no time for idleness. There were er- 
rands to run, chores to do and scores of miscellaneous 
duties unknown to the average boy of today. He lived 
in the midst of the forest, no church, no day school and 
no Sunday-school to attend, no newspapers nor maga- 
zines coming by mail, for there was not a postoffice with- 
in thirty miles, and periodical literature was then al- 
most unknown ; no books save those which grown people 
read, no pictures except those found in such books, and 
no toys except those his own hands could make, while he 
had few associates outside his parents' home. 

Think of this, ye boys and girls, scions of Hugh Linn 
2d, who have elegantly furnished churches to attend, Sun- 
day-schools with every appliance for teaching, and graded 
day schools ten months in the year, with teachers spe- 

151 



152 THE CLAN LINN. 



daily qualified for their work ; ye who have daily papers 
and illustrated magazines containing literature for old 
and young, and news from every part of the world, 
whose homes are decorated with beautiful pictures, 
vastly better than the few crude woodcuts of pioneer 
days. What a contrast ! 

His parents gave him instruction as best they could 
with the limited means at their command, and when he 
was about eight years old a man was hired by them and 
the parents of a few other children to teach a private 
school, no such thing as a public school being then in 
existence. This was in a small log cabin, without plaster 
or ceiling. Two holes cut in the logs answered the pur- 
pose of windows, and these were covered with oiled or 
greased paper, as glass could not be had. Holes were 
bored in the logs at one side of the room, into which pins 
or pegs about a foot and a half long were driven, and 
rough boards were laid on these on which to write and 
cipher. Such was the only opportunity Hugh Linn 2d 
had for securing an education. 

Brought up in a religious home by pious parents, he 
was deeply convicted of sin when only nine years of age. 
He prayed much for an evidence of his acceptance as a 
child of God and one day went into the hay mow to en- 
gage in secret prayer. Then it was that all doubt was re- 
moved from his mind and he entered into the life of an 
earnest Christian and consistently followed it until his 
death seventy-five years later. 

When a Methodist Society was established in the set- 
tlement, November, 1800, he was admitted as one of the 
first members, and was later an official member for more 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 153 

than half a century. Neither summer's heat nor winter's 
cold prevented his attendance at the means of grace. 
Always a pillar in the church, he and Robert Maclay, a 
man of like religious enthusiasm, were known as the 
"Caleb and Joshua" of the hosts of Methodism in Con- 
cord. That was a time when the church was often 
crowded to overflowing by people from far and near, 
zealous, energetic, self-sacrificing, a people whose 
religion was one of deep conviction of the primal truths 
of Christianity, and whose conviction found expression 
in a godly life, "unspotted by the world" and in aggres- 
sive works ; in seeking the conversion of souls in the 
church, in the home, and in the community. 

Hugh Linn 26. was pre-eminently a man of prayer. 
Aside from family worship morning and evening, he had 
his fixed times for private prayer, and no matter how 
urgent business might be, or how entertaining the com- 
pany, he found time and opportunity, as did his Master, 
to retire from the world and commit himself and his in- 
terests to the hands of Deity. 

He was married to Miss Ann Widney in 1808, and they 
lived together a contented, a happy and a useful life for 
fifty-seven years, when death called her away. They 
brought up a family of ten children, four sons and six 
daughters, two of the daughters still surviving (1905) 
at very advanced ages, — Mrs. Margaret Loughridge, of 
West Side, Iowa, and Mrs. Arabella M. Bloom, of Las 
Vegas, New Mexico. 

Hugh Linn, 2d, was a very busy man. He was a stone 
mason by trade, and the early part of the last century 
was an era of stone buildings. Nearly all of the better 



154 THE CLAN LINN. 



class of dwellings, as well as barns, were built of stone. 
His industry, energy and ability soon made him a master 
of his trade, and early in life he began to take contracts 
for the erection of buildings, employing numbers of men, 
who soon learned to recognize in him a just and consci- 
entious employer. His work included a district of coun- 
try many miles in extent in Franklin, Cumberland, Perry, 
Juniata and Huntingdon counties, Pennsylvania, and 
necessitated his being absent from home much of the 
time, but it was characteristic of him that Sunday nearly 
always found him at home with his family. In connec- 
tion with his business he also carried on by means of 
employes a carding and fulling mill, a grist mill and a 
farm. 

Years before the organization of temperance societies 
in the United States he advocated total abstinence. The 
moderate use of alcoholic liquor was common among re- 
ligious people in the early part of the last century and 
some form of strong drink was found in nearly every 
sideboard, while it was a mark of hospitality among 
church members, as well as others, to invite a guest or 
visiting friend to take a social glass. He related to the 
writer when a boy his reason for being a total abstainer. 
One dark, cold, wet evening, about the year 1828, he was 
at the village store, talking to Mr. Joseph Pomeroy, then 
the principal merchant of the community, and a model 
citizen. As he was leaving Mr. Pomeroy said, "Mr. Linn, 
it is a very chilly evening, won't you take something to 
drink before going?" He accepted the invitation, and as 
he went out of the store, immediately after, was met in 
the darkness by a drunkard who had seen him through 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 155 



the window, and who said to him, "Well, Mr. Linn, I see 
you are fond of a little whiskey too." As he wended his 
way homeward he said to himself, "Is it possible that such 
a man should be encouraged to drink by me ? This shall 
never happen again." From that time he forbade the use 
of any intoxicating beverage in his home. 

It was then the custom also to furnish employes with 
a. certain amount of whiskey each day, and this custom 
he determined to abandon. Soon afterward he summoned 
ten or fifteen men to help clean his mill race of mud and 
moss, a most disagreeable task which had to be done 
every year, and which necessitated their working in 
water all day. All were on hand on the morning of the 
day appointed, and after family worship (which was 
never omitted, morning or evening), and a hearty break- 
fast by all, he told them of his resolution never again to 
use intoxicating liquor nor to furnish it to those in his 
employment. He then stated his reasons for such a radi- 
cal departure from the custom of that day, and added 
that if they were aggrieved at his course he would not 
ask them to stay, and hoped he would not forfeit the good 
will of any one by his action. They recognized his good 
intention, however much they may have doubted his wis- 
dom, and every one went to work. He adhered to this 
custom ever after and lived to see his example almost uni- 
versally followed by employers. 

When eighty years of age his wife died (she being 
then also in her eightieth year) and he went to spend his 
last days with his daughter, Mrs. Sarah Ann Henry, near 
Polo, Ogle county, Illinois, where he died. Death came 
to him peacefully, without pain and without any special 



156 THE CLAN LINN. 



illness, the tribute which old age must pay to nature. 
Recognizing that the end was near he said to the family 
at noon, "Go and take your dinner, then come and read a 
chapter and we will have prayer. I know my time has 
come to die." The family did as directed, and after pray- 
er he closed his eyes and slept, without a struggle, the 
sleep that knows no waking in this life. He was buried 
in the cemetery at Mt. Morris, 111. 

Hugh Linn, 2nd, may be considered a type of the Linn 
family. In all families there are certain characteristics 
which, while not uniformly found in all its members, are 
considered representative. He was tall, muscular and 
large framed, with projecting eyebrows, had light and 
deep set eyes and dark hair, was of a nervous tempera- 
ment, quick in speech and action, courteous but not ob- 
sequious, positive but not arbitrary, bold but not pug- 
nacious, self-reliant but not obstinate, dignified but not re- 
pellant, just but not austere, social but not convivial, re- 
ligious but not bigoted. 

ANN (WIDNEY) LINN, wife of Hugh Linn, 2nd, 
and daughter of James Widney and Ann (Erwin) Wid- 
ney, was born Dec. 22d, 1785, near the site of the pres- 
ent village of Concord, Pa. She was converted at the age 
of twelve years, married to Hugh Linn, 2nd, October 
27th, 1808, and for fifty-seven years, until death came, 
was a devoted helpmate in all the activities of life. 

Small of stature, cheerful in disposition, wonderfully 
patient and industrious, deeply religious and wise in 
council, she was a wife and mother worthy of the biblical 
description, "Her children arise and call her blessed, her 
husband also, and he praiseth her." She was always 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 157 

calmly resigned to every dispensation of Providence, how- 
ever sad or inexplicable, and in the midst of the most try- 
ing ordeal of life would invariably say "It is all for the 
best." 

Nothing could shake her faith in the divine wisdom and 
goodness. Like her father and sisters she was fond of 
reading, and an unusually intelligent conversationalist on 
all current events. She died peacefully in her eightieth 
year, assured that she had endeavored to fulfil her mis- 
sion, and that a crown of glory awaited her in a better 
world. 



158 THE CLAN LINN. 



anb 

ilarg (Htlte) Sinn 

JAMES WIDNEY LINN, oldest son of Hugh Linn, 
2nd, was born in 1809, and died in 1864. He received the 
schooling usual in that early day and place, and in his 
teens accompanied his father in his business of stone 
mason, thus acquiring a good, practical knowledge of that 
trade, and later entered his father's mill, where he learned 
the trade of a miller. 

He was deep and broad chested, a man of great endur- 
ance and efficient in every line of work he undertook, 
social in disposition, hospitable in entertaining, generous 
in his benefactions and popular with all classes of the 
community. His home, like that of his father, was ever 
an asylum for "the preacher," especially the "junior 
preacher" of the circuit, and when that personage arrived 
from the seat of the Conference annually (for then the 
junior preacher was changed every year) his first inquiry 
on reaching Concord was for the house of James Linn. 

He was a most consistent member of the Methodist 
Church and an official member nearly all his mature life. 
Like his father he was a man of devout mind and much 
given to secret prayer, no day of his life passing without 
private devotion at some time during the working hours, 
while family worship morning and evening was the in- 
variable rule. In early life he bought his father's mill, 
and, with the aid of an assistant to whom much of the 
routine work was given, followed that business the rest 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 159 



of his life. Being a superior workman, trustworthy and 
honest in all his dealings with men, his mill was the seat 
of a custom which extended for miles, men often passing 
other mills to go to Concord. For this reason much night 
work was necessary, and for weeks sometimes the mill 
was kept going without intermission from one o'clock 
on Monday morning until eleven o'clock Saturday night. 
So honest was he in the sale of grain that he was never 
known to "stroke" a bushel except when he sold it as an 
agent for some one else. 

James Widney Linn was an active member of the 
community, being interested in all matters of public wel- 
fare, and was employed from time to time by citizens in 
settling family estates. Intellectually and morally well 
balanced, the writer never knew him to lose his temper, 
to use harsh language nor to speak evil of any one. He 
spared no effort in the training and education of his chil- 
dren. He was an opponent of slavery, an advocate of lay 
representation in the Methodist Church long before its 
introduction, and a total abstainer from tobacco and in- 
toxicating beverages. Fond of reading, he was a regu- 
lar subscriber to the church and secular periodicals, and 
the possessor of a good collection of books for that day. 
He was a leading spirit in financing and erecting the 
present Methodist church in Concord in 1845-6. The 
original edifice, which stood in the village graveyard, 
and the pulpit of which was over the site of the graves 
of Robert Maclay and his wife (leading members of that 
church for more than fifty years), was a log structure 
erected early in the century, and proved too small for the 
growing society. He being a practical mason, as well as 



i6o THE CLAN LINN. 



miller, superintended the work of building and personally 
assisted in laying the foundation and erecting the walls. 
The bricks were made in his meadow, bordering on the 
Tuscarora Creek, where even today may be seen evi- 
dences of the old clay pits from which the material was 
taken to make them. He boarded the masons and brick- 
layers, and in many ways did as much as anyone else in 
carrying to a successful completion the new church 
edifice. 

In 1836 he married Miss Mary Wilds, of Fort Little- 
ton, Fulton County, Pennsylvania. She was a great- 
granddaughter of Colonel James Burd, who commanded 
the Fourth Battalion of Pennsylvania Riflemen in the 
Revolutionary War. Colonel Burd's daughter, Ann 
Burd, born 1762, was married to Benjamin Wilds, by 
whom she had four children, Benjamin, William, John 
and George, the dates of their births and deaths respec- 
tively being 1780-1834, 1781-1827, 1783-1830, 1785-1827. 

Ann (Burd) Wilds being left a widow, married James 
Widney, the founder of Concord, in 1809. His daughter, 
Ann Widney, born in 1785, married Hugh Linn 2d in 
1808, and was the writer's grandmother in the Linn fam- 
ily. Thus it is seen that his great-grandmother, Ann 
(Burd) Wilds, married as a widow his great-grand- 
father, James Widney, a widower. 

MARY (WILDS) LINN was a woman of delicate 
physique and nervous temperament, energetic beyond 
her strength, ambitious for the training and success of 
her children, and a member of the Methodist Church on 
account of her husband, though her antecedents were 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 161 

Presbyterian. She was a sister of George Wilds, once a 
prominent citizen of Fulton County, Pennsylvania, and 
for a long time Prothonotary of that County. Another 
brother, John Quincy Wilds, was Colonel of the 24th 
Regiment of Iowa Volunteers in the Civil War and re- 
ceived a mortal wound at the battle of Cedar Creek, 
Virginia, October 19th, 1864, while commanding a Bri- 
gade. 



1 62 THE CLAN LINN. 



j^aralf Attn (Slum) i^ntry 

and 

£>amittl Ifntrg 

SARAH ANN LINN, eldest daughter of Hugh Linn 
2d and Ann (Widney) Linn, was born and brought up 
near Concord, Pennsylvania. She was married to Sam- 
uel Henry, August 14th, 1838, and five years later, in 
1843, moved with her husband to the then almost track- 
less prairies of northern Illinois. The prairie wolf and 
the Indian were her early neighbors, and she there re- 
peated the experiences of her grandfather, Hugh Linn, 
modified though they were by a different environment. 
The rugged mountains gave place to the rolling prairie, 
the dense undergrowth of the valley to the wild flowers 
which dotted the landscape, and the patches of mountain- 
enclosed sky to a horizon, which knew no limit but the 
capacity of the human eye. 

She was a woman of gentle spirit, of retiring disposi- 
tion, and of unusual mental grasp. Limited as were her 
early opportunities for securing an education, she showed 
by her correspondence and conversation her superiority 
of mind. After fourscore years her letters were models 
of neatness, penmanship and fluent composition, and a 
pleasure to peruse. 

Her home life was quiet and peaceful. Patiently she 
assumed the duties which devolved upon her as a wife 
and mother, and for fifty-three years resided in the same 
locality until her lifework was done. Her children were 
taught at her knee the precepts of religion, and her life 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 163 



was a daily reminder of the teachings of the Master. 
She died March 9th, 1896. 

SAMUEL HENRY, her husband, was a quiet, unob- 
trusive man, who, like his wife, loved the privacy of 
home and family life. Faithful to the duties and respon- 
sibilities devolving upon the pioneer, he was ever atten- 
tive to the needs and wishes of home and children, and 
lived to see them reared to manhood and womanhood. 
He died October 7th, 1880, and was buried in the ceme- 
tery at Mt. Morris, Illinois, where also repose the re- 
mains of his wife and of Hugh Linn 2d, who died at his 
home. 



164 THE CLAN LINN. 



3att* (HUttt) QfaijUir 

an& 

Andrew Sarkwm (Uaglnr 

(CONTRIBUTED BY MRS. ELIZABETH COGSWELL.) 

JANE (LINN) TAYLOR was born in Concord, 
Pennsylvania, July 16, 1818, and married Andrew Jack- 
son Taylor, April 11, 1837. They resided for more than 
twenty years at Shade Gap, Pennsylvania, and removed 
to Fort Littleton, of the same State, where he died, March 
29, 1884. In the following summer she removed to Car- 
roll County, Illinois, where two sons and two daughters 
resided. 

Jane (Linn) Taylor was a member of the Methodist 
Church for 68 years, and was a woman of unusual intel- 
ligence, noble Christian character, and sweet, unselfish 
disposition. In the truest sense she lived for others, 
always seeking to do good. She was of a quiet and 
retiring nature, so that only her nearest friends could 
really know and appreciate her true worth. 

She had eleven children, eight of whom grew to man- 
hood and womanhood. She died at the home of her son, 
John Templeton Taylor, in Chicago, Illinois, April 11, 
1903, that day being the sixty-sixth anniversary of her 
marriage. Her intellect was clear to the last. Her body 
rests in Oak Ridge Cemetery, Chicago, where it was car- 
ried by her three sons and three grandsons. There 
were living at the time of her decease, six children, 
twenty-seven grandchildren, and twenty-one great- 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 165 

grandchildren. Her memory is cherished by all who 
knew her. 

ANDREW JACKSON TAYLOR, husband of Jane 
(Linn) Taylor, was a son of Caspar Taylor, who was 
born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, near Philadel- 
phia, in 1774. His grandfather, John Taylor, came from 
Germany, and finally settled in Amberson's Valley, seven 
miles from Concord, where he died in 1831, at the age of 
eighty years. Andrew Jackson Taylor was a genial but 
quiet man, fond of conversation, interested in the world's 
doings, and of much intelligence. He was a saddler and 
harness-maker by trade, industrious in his habits, a mem- 
ber of the Methodist Church, a faithful husband and a 
good father. 



12 



166 THE CLAN LINN. 



j0j|tt iCtmt 

an& 

ifflargarrt (i^ana) Sinn 

JOHN LINN was born in 1820 and brought up on his 
father's farm, near Concord, Pennsylvania. When a 
young man he went to Boonesboro, Maryland, where he 
taught school for a time and then learned the trade of 
marble cutting and engraving, which he followed for 
some years and at intervals during his life. Returning 
to Path Valley, he bought his father's farm about 1850 
and resided there until 1867, when he sold his farm and 
removed to the village of Concord, where he led a re- 
tired life until his decease in 1895. 

Unlike his brothers, James and Alexander, he was of 
a very retiring disposition, even shunning society. He 
was a tireless worker, never taking a day of rest during 
his active life, except the Sabbath, was frugal and eco- 
nomical to an extreme, a most careful manager, and as a 
result accumulated a considerable fortune, so that at his 
decease church institutions were .benefitted to the extent 
of nearly forty thousand dollars, they having received 
the bulk of his money, for which he had received annui- 
ties. 

He was married to MISS MARGARET HAYS, a 
most industrious woman of strong Christian character, 
who died in 1890. She was an invalid for twenty years 
and suffered greatly from a form of rheumatism. Her 
patience and Christian resignation, during her many 
years of suffering, were most remarkable, and she was 
never known to murmur under the chastening hand of 
Providence. They had no children. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 167 

(CONTRIBUTED BY MRS. JOHN J. WOOLHISER.) 

MARGARET LINN, fourth daughter of Hugh and 
Ann Widney Linn, was born March 26, 1822, among 
the hills of Franklin County, Pennsylvania. She early 
learned the duties of a housekeeper, as each of the girls 
took turns in doing the work of the household, that 
being the rule of the mother. She became a member of 
the church at an early age, and has been always a de- 
voted Christian. She was married when eighteen years 
of age to her cousin, ABRAHAM LOUGHRIDGE, a 
marble cutter, who then lived in Maryland, near Boones- 
boro. In April, 1842, they moved to Ogle County, Illi- 
nois, going by wagon to Pittsburg and thence to Bur- 
ington, Iowa, by boat, a trip of nine days on the Ohio 
and Mississippi Rivers. From the river they traveled 
by wagon over the almost unbroken prairies to Pine 
Creek. On their way one of their horses escaped, and 
father followed him almost all night before catching 
him, mother in the meanwhile sitting alone on the open 
prairie with her babe, Ann, only four months old. The 
baby screamed with colic, mother suffered with thirst, 
and every instant feared the Indians who were roaming 
over the country would find and kill them. Father 
finally returned, and, having reached their destination, 
they began to build their future home, a small log house, 
and other buildings. They returned to Pennsylvania for 
the winter and in the next spring retraced their steps to 
Illinois, accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Henry, 



1 68 THE CLAN LINN. 



Mrs. Henry being a sister of Mrs. Loughridge. Reaching 
Savanna, Illinois, by boat, the women and three children 
in a buggy, and the men in a wagon with their household 
goods, crossed the prairie to their new home. They had 
but little food and were unable to get any on the way, 
and passed a night in a cabin, where they slept on the 
floor. A beautiful horse had been given to mother by 
her father, and was taken west with them, where they 
expected to reap a fortune from her foal. After getting 
settled in their prairie home, they staked their fine horse 
in the slough for the night, where some thief found her, 
and they never heard of her again. The two sisters lived 
in the same house during the next year. The home was 
improved, a school-house was built on father's farm, 
and a United Brethren Church organized, which all 
joined. Other children came as the years passed, and 
in 1850 my father died of brain fever, when the struggle 
of a widow with five small children began. Aside from 
her own home duties, she found time to visit and pray 
with the sick, lay out the dead, and comfort the sorrow- 
ing, all for love of the Master. The eldest son enlisted 
in the army during the Civil War, and the second died. 
Later she moved to Crawford County, Iowa, repeating 
her ministrations of love and devotion among new 
friends, and helped to organize a Methodist Church. 
Here she still is holding high the banner of Christ, point- 
ing by her life to the cross, and waiting for the Master's 
call and the bright-winged messengers who shall bear 
her home to the waiting ones. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 169 

lr. Akxantor lErarin ICttm 

aab 

ilatitfm (i>t}att?r) IGtrot 

DR. ALEXANDER ERWIN LINN, son of Hugh 
Linn, 2d. was born in 1826, received an academic train- 
ing at Tuscarora Academy, Pennsylvania, and studied 
medicine, receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine 
from Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, in 1847. 
In 1852 he married Miss Matilda Shaver, of Newton 
Hamilton, Pennsylvania ; practiced medicine in Perry 
County of that State until the Civil War, and served as 
surgeon of the 207th Regiment of Pennsylvania Infantry. 
At the close of the war he relinquished the active prac- 
tice of medicine and retired to his farm, near Newton 
Hamilton, but was frequently consulted by local practi- 
tioners in the treatment of obscure and critical cases of 
disease. In 1887, his children having gone west, he re- 
moved to Nebraska, but after a few years returned to 
Concord, Pennsylvania, at the request of his brother, 
John, where he resided until his decease in 1902. 

Dr. Linn was a man of superior intelligence, rare 
gentleness of spirit and strong sympathies, a devoted 
husband, a kind father, a good citizen, and ever actuated 
by the purest motives in all his dealings with men. He 
was for forty years a local preacher in the Methodist 
Church, and frequently called upon to administer to the 
spiritual as well as the physical needs of men. He died 
as he lived, full of faith and hope, a noble example for 
all, and an inspiration for good and holy living. His 



170 THE CLAN LINN. 

greatest desire was to extend in every possible way the 
kingdom of his Master, and of him it may well be said 
that "though dead he yet speaketh." 

His marriage to Miss Shaver proved to be most con- 
genial, and for fifty years they trod the path of domestic 
life together. She was an intelligent, energetic "help- 
mate," whose chief pleasure was found among her chil- 
dren and supervising the needs of her home. Like her 
husband she had a strong religious element in her na- 
ture, and never ceased both by word and example to in- 
culcate in the minds of her children deep moral convic- 
tions. After Dr. Linn's decease she remained in Con- 
cord until January, 1904, when she removed to Bellwood, 
Pennsylvania, to reside with her daughter, Mrs. Clara 
Dysart. She now awaits, at more than four score years 
of age, the summons of her Master to join her husband, 
saying, "If our earthly house of this tabernacle be dis- 
solved, we have a building of God, an house not made 
with hands, eternal in the heavens." 

Their children were Clara Ellen, John Alexander Wat- 
son, William Howard, George Edward, Morrison 
Shaver and Junie. 

MATILDA (SHAVER) LINN was born at Newton 
Hamilton, Pennsylvania, September 7, 1823. Her great- 
grandfather came from Germany and settled in the Cum- 
berland Valley about 1750, where he brought up a family 
of four boys and four girls. He subsequently moved to 
Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, and settled on the 
Aughwick Creek, about four miles below Shirleysburg, 
in 1770. One of his sons, Major John Shaver, was born 
in 1762. He was married, in 1794, to Mary Glass, a 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 171 

woman of English descent, and one of their children, 
Jacob Shaver, the father of Matilda (Shaver) Linn, was 
born near the present site of Mt. Union, Pennsylvania, 
in 1796. Jacob Shaver was married, in 1821, to Jane 
Morrison, born 1801. 

They had three children, Mary A. (1822), Matilda 
(1823), and Julia A. (1825). Jane (Morrison) Shaver 
deceased March, 1826. Jacob Shaver married Juliana 
Morrison in 1829, and had four children, John W. 
(1831), Sarah J. (1832), Joshua M. (1834), and Lee 
(1838). 



172 THE CLAN LINN. 



lEteatmr p. (Hum) ®im?r 

attb 

3f Ultam GTimrr. 

(contributed by harry typer, esq.) 

ELEANOR P. LINN, the youngest child of Hugh 
Linn and Ann (Widney) Linn, was born at Concord, 
Pennsylvania, on May 30, 1831, and died at Polo, Illi- 
nois, September 17, 1905. 

She spent her childhood days with her parents, at Con- 
cord, of which she had many happy recollections. She 
often told her children of her many adventures in the 
mountains when she was a child. She was converted and 
joined the Methodist Episcopal Church when a child, 
and did not remember the time when she did not recog- 
nize Christ as her Saviour. On November 7, 1850, she 
was united in marriage to William Typer, of Martins- 
burg, Pennsylvania, where they went to live. They 
lived at Martinsburg for five years. In 1856 they moved 
to Illinois. Her two older sisters had come to Illinois 
previously. They located near Polo, on a farm, and ever 
after resided in or near Polo. She was the mother of 
seven boys and three girls, of whom there are six boys 
and one girl living at present. 

WILLIAM TYPER, son of Charles Typer, was born 
at Martinsburg, Blair County, Pennsylvania, on June 30, 
1826. He spent his boyhood days on a farm near Mar- 
tinsburg, and attended the public schools during win- 
ters. He was converted when a bov and united with the 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 173 



Methodist Episcopal Church, and has been a member of 
said church for over sixty years. He followed the occu- 
pation of farming and stock raising until 1896, when he 
retired from active business pursuits. Mr. Typer has 
been a man of great activity, and always doing something 
besides his regular work as a farmer. He always took 
an active interest in all public questions for the benefit 
of the community in which he resided, and always stood 
for what he believed to be right, regardless of whether 
or not it was the popular thing. 



174 THE CLAN LINN. 



Janu>a Sinn ana iFamtlg. 

(CONTRIBUTED BY SAMUEL BOOHER LINN.) 

JAMES LINN was born in the year 1792, and 
brought up on his father's farm until twenty years of 
age, when the war of 1812 with Great Britain called the 
yoemen of the country to arms in defence of the Nation's 
honor and sense of justice. He at once volunteered to 
enter the service and joined a company which was re- 
cruited at Concord, Pennsylvania. His father, Hugh 
Linn, who had imbibed the spirit of a true American 
patriot, accompanied his son on a two days' journey on 
his way to the front, and on parting with him said, "My 
son, be a good soldier, and never turn back a coward." 

The memories of the battle of the Boyne water and 
the spirit of religious intolerance which had been so fierce 
in the Emerald Isle between the "Orange" and the 
"Green" had been transplanted, and one day in camp he 
expressed himself concerning St. Patrick's followers in 
language more vigorous than polite. Several soldiers 
who were devotees of the patron saint pounced upon him 
and by main strength threw him into the camp fire. 
Being a very active man, he was immediately upon his 
feet, rushed to his gun and would have bayonetted his 
assailants had not cooler heads prevailed. They at- 
tempted to have the superior officer punish him, but when 
he learned the nature of the offence (being himself prob- 
ably an Orangeman), he said he had done right, and 
should use his bayonet if attacked again. 

James Linn was a class leader in the Methodist Church, 
a position of distinction in those davs. He had six sons 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 175 

and one daughter. Four of his sons enlisted in the ser- 
vice during the Civil War, and his son-in-law, Charles 
W. Evans, was also in the army. 

NANCY (BOOHER) LINN, youngest child of Cas- 
par Booher, was born in Huntindon County, Pennsyl- 
vania, in 1798, and married James Linn 1st in 1815. 
Her father was a class leader in the Methodist Church, 
and she became a member of the church in the year she 
was married. Her father lived to see all his children 
members of that church, and long afterward his daugh- 
ter could say with him, "I have lived to see all my chil- 
dren follow my example." The day was never too warm 
nor too cold to attend divine service. When the infirmi- 
ties of age came to her, her chief companion was the 
Bible, and it was her daily study. Of a truth she was a 
good woman, and when her work in life seemed done 
she was anxious to depart and be with Christ. She slept 
in peace in the year 1877. 

(tapar 1. 2Gtmt. 

CASPAR B. LINN, eldest son of James Linn, enlisted 
in Company B, 21st Missouri Regiment, in the Civil War, 
September, 1861. He was discharged in August, 1862, 
and died the month following. 

MmtB W. Slitm 

atlb 

£>araij (Elftaat £ttm. 

JAMES W. LINN, third son of James Linn, was born 
in 1824 in Horse Valley, Pennsylvania. His parents 
moved to the little Aughwick Creek, Huntingdon County, 



176 THE CLAN LINN. 



Pennsylvania, where they lived and died. He married 
Margaret Linn, daughter of William Linn and grand- 
daughter of Hugh Linn, in 1847, but their married 
life was brief, as she died in the same year. In 1855 he 
married Sarah Chilcoat, who bore to him five children. 

James W. Linn moved to Shelby, Iowa, in 1871, built 
one of the first houses in that town, and was one of the 
original members of the Methodist Church there. He 
bought 80 acres near Shelby, which he improved, but 
subsequently sold and invested in a fruit farm near Pierce 
City, Missouri, where he now resides with his daughter, 
Carrie. During the Civil War he enlisted in the Federal 
Army, August 29, 1864, and was honorably discharged 
August 3, 1865. 

SARAH (CHILCOAT) LINN was born in Hares 
Valley, Pennsylvania, in 1824. She was a good woman, 
a born Methodist, early learned to sew, knit, spin and 
weave, as well as do all kinds of housework. She was re- 
ticent in disposition, but always willing and ready to assist 
anyone in need, and had many warm friends. 

Ita. Ijwjlj iCimt. 

HUGH LINN, son of James and Nancy Linn, was 
born in Huntingdon County, Pa., November 18, 1832. 
Converted at a camp meeting held at Orbisonia, Penn- 
sylvania, in 1848, he was licensed to exhort in 1855, and 
to preach in 1856. He served the church faithfully as 
steward, Sabbath-school superintendent, class leader, 
exhorter and local preacher. His preparation for the 
ministry he secured in Cassville Academy in 1855 and 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 177 



1856. He entered the Traveling Connection in the East 
Baltimore Conference at its beginning in 1857, and was 
admitted to full membership in the same two years later. 
He was ordained deacon at Williamsport, Pennsylvania, 
March 6, 1859, by Bishop Levi Scott, and elder at Cham- 
bersburg, Pennsylvania, March 17, 1861, by Bishop Mat- 
thew Simpson. 

He was married at Bloody Run (now Everett), Penn- 
sylvania, March 26, 1861, to Miss Carrie Feight, by Rev. 
Charles Cleaver, of the Central Pennsylvania Confer- 
ence. God gave them four daughters to cheer and hallow 
their itinerant lives, but called them home to Himself in 
early girlhood. 

After a faithful and useful ministry of thirty-five 
years, his rest is blessed. He was a good man and true. 
He died at his home, in Shelby, Iowa, Saturday, May 
26, 1894. 

g>atm»l IB. Hum 
3am> GL (fttam) 2jum. 

SAMUEL B. LINN was born in Huntingdon Coun- 
ty, Pennsylvania, in 1836. He followed farming until 
1864, when his brother, Jacob, returned from the army. 
He then determined to buckle on the sabre and do his 
part in the great Civil War. He bade all good-bye and 
started for Harrisburg to enlist. On the way he stopped 
at the house of his brother, Hugh, to say farewell, but 
no one was at home. There he wrote his will, signed it 
with his blood, sealed and left it with a note that the 



178 THE CLAN LINN. 



envelope was not to be opened unless he should fail to 
get home from the army alive. 

Reaching Harrisburg, he enlisted, July 28, 1864, in 
Company A, Ninth Pennsylvania Cavalry, and joined 
the regiment at Nashville, Tennessee. They were or- 
dered to Chattanooga, and he met his baptism of fire 
near Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where the regiment met 
General Biddle in conflict and came off victors, capturing 
130 prisoners. They joined General Kilpatrick's Divi- 
sion at Atlanta, in November. On the 14th of that month 
the army was reviewed by General Sherman, and on the 
next day began the famous march across Georgia to the 
sea. He was with the regiment in its various engage- 
ments, narrowly escaping capture on two occasions. 
Once he was decoyed by the enemy, uniformed as Union 
soldiers, into their very midst. On being ordered to sur- 
render, he put spurs to his horse and escaped at full gal- 
lop, his companions being captured. When he reached 
the Union lines there was a deafening cheer arising from 
the whole army, which he could not understand until 
told the news of General Lee's surrender had just been 
received. This was on April 12, 1865. Some one noting 
that his horse had had a hard ride, asked him what was 
the matter. He said in reply that he guessed his horse 
had heard of the surrender of General Lee. He was 
honorably discharged at Lexington, N. C, May 26, 1865. 

In 1877 ne s °ld his farm in Pennsylvania, moved near 
to Shelby, Iowa, where he engaged in agriculture until 
1 89 1, when he retired to Shelby and lives in peace under 
his own vine and fig-tree. Like his brothers, he has been 
from youth a member of the Methodist Church. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 179 

Samuel B. Linn has had four children. The eldest, 
Luella V., is married to Dr. Albert E. Stevens, of Han- 
cock, Iowa. Marietta K. graduated at Simpson College, 
Iowa, in 1894, and died the following year. N. Eliza- 
beth also graduated at Simpson College in 1894, and is 
at home with her parents. Samuel H. was a student at 
Lincoln University, Nebraska, where he died three 
months before the graduation of his class. 

JANE G. KEAGY, wife of Samuel B. Linn, was born 
in 1836. She was the daughter of Abraham Keagy, 
born 1790, the third son of Dr. Abraham Keagy, born 
in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 1757, and married 
to Barbara Boehm in 1762. She was a sister of Rev. 
Henry Boehm, one of Bishop Asbury's traveling com- 
panions, who was then the oldest preacher in Methodism, 
living to be one hundred years of age. Dr. Keagy moved 
to Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, in 1805, taking up a 
large tract of land at Glen Hope, on the Clearfield 
Creek. 

Abraham Keagy 2d was married to Elizabeth Shafer 
(born 1800), in 1825. After his father's death, he moved 
to the homestead in 1825, and lived there until his death, 
in 1856. Elizabeth Keagy died in 1882. They were 
among the founders of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania. 

Jane G. Keagy was married to Samuel B. Linn, 1865, 
in Glen Hope, and began housekeeping near Maddens- 
ville, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, where they re- 
sided until 1878, when they moved to Iowa, near Shelby. 
There they settled on 176 acres of prairie land, which 
they improved, and in 1891 moved to the town of Shelby, 



i8o THE CLAN LINN. 



where they are spending their declining years in comfort 
in a pleasant home, and looking after the interests of 
their farm. 

3arnb 1L 3Gintt 

and 

^Btn (GHjilroat) Ufcm. 

JACOB B. LINN was born in 1839 in Huntingdon 
County, Pennsylvania, and reared on a farm until 1859, 
when he entered Rainsburg Academy, Blair County, 
Pennsylvania. He remained there until President Lin- 
coln issued his first call for troops, when he enlisted, 
April 23, 1 861, for three years in the Eighth Regiment. 
Pennsylvania Infantry. He served in the Peninsula 
campaign ; in the seven days' fight before Richmond un- 
der General McClellan ; was taken prisoner, June 27, 
1862, and spent sixty days in Libby prison and on Belle 
Island. Unfit for duty when exchanged, he was sent to 
a hospital, but, impatient to be in active service, he took 
"French leave," and joined his regiment in time to be at 
the battle of Antietam. He was also at the battle of 
Fredericksburg, in 1863. He was honorably discharged 
at Spottsylvania Court House, and mustered out at Pitts- 
burg, May 23, 1864. 

Returning home in June, he soon after bought a farm, 
where he remained until 1874, when he moved with his 
family to near Shelby, Iowa, and bought 120 acres, 
which he improved. He left his farm in the hands of his 
son, McKendree, in 1881, and moved to Hand County, 
South Dakota, where, taking up 480 acres, he remained 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 181 

four years. He then placed his Dakota land in the hands 
of his sons, Ambrose and McKendree, who now own 800 
acres and control about 3,000 more as a ranch. Return- 
ing to Shelby, he remained there until his decease, in 
1893, which occurred very suddenly. He had gone to 
Blair, Nebraska, to a reunion with two of his old army 
messmates. Each had read a paper on his army expe- 
riences and observations, and when done they knelt in 
prayer before parting. He began to pray, saying, "We 
thank Thee, O Lord, that we as comrades have been 
permitted to meet again. We pray Thee to help us so 
to live that we may all meet in heaven." As he finished 
the last sentence, he fell back into the arms of his mess- 
mates, gasped twice, and his spirit took its flight. Thus 
did he go to join that vast army of old soldiers, of whom 
the inscription over the gateway of the National Ceme- 
tery at Gettysburg says : 

"On Fame's eternal camping ground 
Their silent tents are spread ; 
And glory guards with solemn round 
The bivouac of the dead." 

He was married to Hester Ann Chilcoat, in 1864, and 
had six sons and one daughter, all living and members 
of the Methodist Church. Mrs. Linn lives on the farm 
with her son, Frank. Walter M., the fourth son, grad- 
uated at Simpson College, in June, 1904, having in view 
the ministry. Hugh is now a student at Simpson Col- 
lege. 



13 



182 THE CLAN LINN. 



HESTER (CHILCOAT) LINN was born in Hunt- 
ingdon County, Pennsylvania, December 15, 1835, and is 
the oldest of eight children. She was brought up on a 
farm and received her education in the common schools. 
Very early in life the household duties devolved upon 
her because of the illness of her mother, and she re- 
mained at home doing faithfully the duties that fall to a 
daughter, until she was twenty-eight years of age. 

She was married to Jacob B. Linn, October 13, 1864. 
In 1874 she came to Shelby County, Iowa, with her hus- 
band and family, and located on the farm, where she still 
resides. She has been a consistent member of the Meth- 
odist Church since 1854. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 183 



iHanj (Hum) IGimgijrftrj* 

ani» 

The Loughridges were among the early settlers in 
Horse Valley, Cumberland (now Perry) County, in the 
eighteenth century. There were three of that name, who 
may have been brothers, George, John and Hugh. A 
copy of a record of the Widney family, in the possession 
of the writer, says: "Mary Linn (daughter of Sarah 
(Widney) Linn) married George Loughridge, 1802; 
died 1826; aged 44 years." The date of the marriage 
may have been 1812, rather than 1802, due to a mistake 
of the copyist. 

The same record says, "Margaret Widney, born 1789, 
married John Loughridge." The name Hugh Lough- 
ridge appears on the "mill book" or day book of Hugh 
Linn 2d, who owned a mill, in various business transac- 
tions, under date of 1825. 

GEORGE AND MARY (LINN) LOUGHRIDGE 
had a family of seven children, three of whom, Hugh, 
Mary and Martha, died in early life. George Lough- 
ridge was a man of much ability and transmitted to his 
children the same superiority of mind. "He applied the 
Archimedean lever principle in the construction of a 
practical lever adapted to work in stone quarries, and 
having heard that extensive deposits of marble had been 
discovered and were being worked on the land of the 
Eaveys, in Washington County, Maryland (Eavey's 
Luck), he took the device there to test and utilize." 



184 THE CLAN LINN. 



This was in the early twenties of the last century, and 
his family remaining- at the home place, a constant corre- 
spondence was kept up between himself and his wife. 
Their son, William, had, in i860, a large package of 
letters writtten by Mary (Linn) Loughridge, his mother, 
and addressed to his father at the time above mentioned. 
Of them, Mrs. Edward Williams Barker says: "These 
letters were lost, but I recall having read them as a child, 
and having been greatly impressed by their religious 
tenor and pervading sweet tone. In one she spoke of 
the death of one of her daughters, from an epidemic 
then prevailing. In another she grieved over the death 
of her son, Hugh, whom she idolized." 

Mrs. Alexander Neill writes: "She was evidently a 
woman of deep religious convictions. Her faith was 
undimned and her letters showed great resignation, 
almost an open vision that all was well with her children. 
They were filled with love and sympathy for her hus- 
band." 

The love of William Loughridge for his mother 
amounted to reverence. He considered her the embodi- 
ment of every Christian virtue." 

After his wife's death, George Loughridge lived in 
Washington County, Maryland, with the remaining 
children, George 2d, Abraham, John and William. 

John Barker, of Ashbourne, Pennsylvania, great- 
grandson of George Loughridge and grandson of Wil- 
liam Loughridge, contributes the following: 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 185 

BUUam IGougljri&g?. 

WILLIAM LOUGHRIDGE married, March 25, 
1836, Rachel Eavey. In 1847 he moved with his family 
to a place he bought at Weverton, Washington County, 
Maryland, and engaged in the grain business there for 
some years. 

In 1854 he conceived of a brake for railway cars to 
be under the control of the engineman, as an improve- 
ment upon the system then in vogue of having brakemen 
apply the brakes by hand windlasses operated on each 
separate car. His thought on the subject evolved the 
first practical engineers brake for the general purposes 
of steam railways. 

Writing at a much later date, he states: "In 1854 I 
saw a locomotive engineer at Weverton, Maryland, run 
his train some distance beyond the station. When he 
backed, the brakeman stood near the engine, and he got 
off and struck him a severe blow, and used some very 
insulting words, charging him with running by every 
station from Martinsburg. After he left, it occurred to 
me that it would be most desirable to place in the hands 
of the engineer a means to brake his train, and I at once 
had a large operating model made, and a track over 100 
feet long, on which I made elaborate experiments, which 
resulted in the equipment of a train on the Baltimore & 
Ohio Railroad that operated well. The Cincinnati, Ham- 
ilton & Dayton Railroad Company was the first to adopt 
it." 

This steam brake,— the "Old Chain Brake,"— was pat- 
ented April 10, 1855, and subsequently, and was employed 



1 86 THE CLAN LINN. 



on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad earlier than October, 

1855- 

It was improved from time to time and in various 

modifications was applied to many American Railroads, 

— among them the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Baltimore 

& Ohio Railroad, the Western Maryland, the Cumberland 

& Pennsylvania, the Ohio & Mississippi, the Cincinnati, 

Hamilton & Dayton, the Indianapolis and Cincinnati, the 

Little Miami, the Memphis and Charleston and many 

others. 

In 1867, in pursuance of this invention, he moved with 
his family to Patterson, New Jersey, to equip the Central 
Railroad of New Jersey. 

About 1869, he bought a place in Baltimore, Maryland, 
where he lived until his wife died in 1883. Thereafter he 
remained in Baltimore until 1885, when he moved to 
Philadelphia to live with his daughter, Mrs. Edward 
Williams Barker, where he died in 1891. He was buried 
with his wife at Hagerstown, Maryland. 

I have a copy of a letter dated September 25th, 1855, 
which Thomas A. Scott, then Assistant Superintendent 
and afterwards President of the Pennsylvania Railroad 
Company, wrote to William Loughridge in enthusiastic 
praise of his invention ; which he described as "undoubt- 
edly one of the great improvements of the age." Under 
date of August 27th, 1859, J. Edgar Thompson, then 
President of the Pennsylvania Company, wrote: "The 
practical operation of the brake since its introduction has 
equalled the promises of the inventor." 

His Brake System was eventually superseded by the 
Westinghouse System, but not until his resources were 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 187 



exhausted in a protracted civil suit against the Westing- 
house Air Brake Company for infringements of his pat- 
ents, in which he endeavored to show that "the so-called 
'Westinghouse Brake' was in all its important and suc- 
cessful features, his invention, in which he was fully 
protected by Letters Patent." 

William Loughridge profoundly deliberated and ex- 
tensively wrote upon the various elements involved in the 
problem of railway car braking and discussed with an 
acute sense of the results of their practical operation, as 
applied to moving trains, the physical laws of force, — of 
Weight, Velocity, Momentum, etc. In 1865 he published 
a pamphlet on "Friction in its practical relation to Rolling 
Stock." Few men, living or dead, had, as he had, the 
continuous and prolonged practical experience necessary 
for an adequate treatment of this difficult subject: and 
the opportunities he enjoyed to observe the effects and 
results of friction, as affecting practical transportation, 
which was keenly taken advantage of by observations and 
experiments for months at a time in almost all the great 
American railway shops and on the tracks, as well as his 
patient and painstaking private experiments and frequent 
conferences with the ablest master-mechanics of his day, 
make his findings of a value perhaps less only than the 
conclusions of the celebrated French scientist Morin. 



188 THE CLAN LINN. 



CHARLES LINN, eldest son of John Linn, was born 
in 1803, married in 1824 to Martha Snyder, and died in 
1876. He was brought up on his father's farm, and after 
his marriage moved to Fulton county, farther west, 
where he engaged in farming. He was a man of large 
frame but spare of flesh, had blue eyes and dark hair and 
inherited an iron constitution, which stood him in good 
stead during a long life of incessant toil. He was en- 
dowed with great energy, a man of most industrious 
habits, of positive convictions but ever ready to acknow- 
ledge a mistake, of religious fervor manifesting itself in 
regularity in church attendance and family worship, and 
in liberal contributions to church support. He was a 
strong advocate of temperance and gave his vote as an 
elector to the man whom he believed honest and efficient 
in advancing the public welfare. He was of quiet dis- 
position, an actor rather than a talker, applied himself 
diligently to business, acquiring control of considerable 
property and conducted himself as a worthy and upright 
citizen. He retained control of his physical and mental 
energies until the last and never ceased to take an active 
interest in the work of life. He died, as he lived, full of 
faith and hope, and was buried at McKendree Church, 
near Emmaville, Pennsylvania. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 189 

^aralf (Hum) i^tttjter 

(CONTRIBUTED BY HUGH LINN SNYDER.) 

SARAH LINN was born in Horse Valley, Pennsyl- 
vania, Sept. 22d, 1806, and was married to John Snyder, 
of Hill Valley, Pennsylvania, in February, 1825. After 
her marriage she went with her husband to Hill Valley, 
Pennsylvania, but soon moved from there to Black Log 
Valley, and after residing there a short time settled in 
Springfield Township, Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania. 
There the better part of their lives was spent and most 
of their children born. As the youngest of the family 
is trying to write this short sketch, his memory goes back 
to the old home and he remembers it as one of industry 
and toil, but where friends and neighbors were ever wel- 
come, no one ever saying aught against the family of 
John Snyder, whose door was always open to the minis- 
ter of the Gospel, they being active members of the 
Methodist Church from early manhood and womanhood. 
In their home the family altar was erected and the gospel 
fire kept burning thereon. In the fall of 1865 they sold 
their farm on the Aughwick to Hugh and Jacob B. Linn 
and moved to Johnson county, Iowa, where they settled 
on the prairie and opened up a new farm, but only lived 
there a few years. They sold the farm and moved to 
Tiffin, Iowa, where her husband died, November 4, 1878, 
at the age of seventy-eight years. She resided there until 
her death, June nth, 1892, being eighty-five years, six 
months and nineteen days old. 



ipo THE CLAN LINN. 

Mm (?Cinn) Uttog 

anii 
(CONTRIBUTED BY OLIVER HANNA WIDNEY.) 

JOHN PATTERSON WIDNEY, born Nov. 28, 1816, 
married Jane Linn, daughter of John Linn, Sept. 26, 
1835, and in the spring of 1836 they moved to Indiana, 
settling near the site of the present town of Newville, 
twenty-six miles northeast of Fort Wayne, when that 
country was yet a wilderness. There they built a cabin 
and cultivated the land, experiencing all the hardships of 
the early settlers. In 1851 Mr. Widney was elected 
Clerk of the De Kalb county Circuit Court, and they re- 
moved to Auburn, the county seat. After the expiration 
of his term of office, 1856, he held various other public 
offices, Deputy Collector of the U. S. Internal Revenue, 
Justice of the Peace, Township Trustee, etc., and all of 
these offices he filled with credit to himself and to the 
satisfaction of the people. 

He was a member of the House of Representatives of 
Indiana in the session of 1847-48, and was re-nominated, 
but defeated because he advocated the free school system 
and a bill to regulate the sale of intoxicating liquors. He 
acquired a great reputation as a financier and accumulat- 
ed quite a fortune, but in doing so never charged any 
more than the legal rate of interest and never distressed 
any one, while on the other hand he has saved the home 
of many a poor man. His reputation for honorable deal- 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 191 

ing and just treatment of his fellows is universally prais- 
ed by those who best know him. No man in DeKalb 
county has borne a higher reputation in all things per- 
taining to the public welfare. He was ever called upon 
by the people to represent them in matters of general in- 
terest, such as granting privileges to corporations. He 
was never present at a meeting when he became a nom- 
inee for office and never in any sense an office seeker. 
As a young man he was very erect, six feet in height, was 
quick in action, in conversation or making an address, 
was a good writer as well as speaker, forcible in an argu- 
ment, but always treating his opponents with the greatest 
courtesy. 

JANE (LINN) WIDNEY died at Auburn, Indiana, 
October 12th, 1851, having born five children, only two 
of whom are now living, Samuel Linn Widney and Oliver 
Hanna Widney, both of whom reside at St. Joe Station, 
Indiana. 

Mr. Widney afterward married Mary Henderson Wid- 
ney, who bore five children, three of whom still survive, 
Mary Alice (wife of Abner Lewis), John Morris and 
Cora (wife of Akin Lodawick). 

At this writing, March, 1904, Mr. Widney, although 
in his 88th year, retains all his faculties and is extremely 
active for one of his age. 



192 THE CLAN LINN. 



Santas Slinn 

atib 

Sjatmatj (2Uib?rtB) Htnn, 

(CONTRIBUTED BY SYLVESTER AND SARAH P. LINN.) 

JAMES LINN, son of John Linn and Jane Scyoc 
Linn, was born September 29th, 1820. His youth was 
spent on his father's farm, and on April 29th, 1841, he 
married Hannah Roberts. He subsequently moved to 
Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, where he remained 
until June, 1857, when he went to Rock Island, Illinois. 
In September, 1865, he moved to Iowa, in which State 
he carried on farming for many years. He then removed 
with his family to Washington, where they bought 1,300 
acres of land and built a home at South Bend. 

James Linn was six feet two inches in height, had 
black hair and eyes, a very cheerful disposition, always 
looking on the bright side of life, and was a man of 
strong Christian character. He joined the Methodist 
Church early in life. He was not a great talker, but fond 
of company, and especially of children. He retained his 
mental faculties until the last, kept a lively interest in 
business matters and often talked of the friends and busi- 
ness associates of his early days. He was a very healthy, 
vigorous man, never having had a doctor until after his 
seventieth year. He never used tobacco nor intoxicating 
liquor, nor does any one of his children, of whom there 
were fourteen, nine boys and five girls, of whom eleven 
are still living. He had no fear of death, and in his last 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 193 

days expressed himself as ready to die. He died May 
25th, 1904. 

HANNAH (ROBERTS) LINN, wife of James Linn, 
was born March 15th, 1821. Her parents were Pennsyl- 
vania Germans. She and her husband were greatly de- 
voted to each other during their long married life of 
sixty-three years, never being apart but once for three 
months. She was a strong and energetic woman, ready 
to do her full share of life's work, and to accompany her 
husband in his movements from place to place. She 
joined the Methodist Church early in life, and was a con- 
sistent Christian, training her children to become faith- 
ful, conscientious men and women. During the last five 
years of her life she was not able to attend church ser- 
vices, but her Bible was her constant companion. Her 
mind continued clear and her last words were "I am 
going to sleep to waken in eternity." She died July 24th, 
1904, having survived her husband just sixty days. 



194 THE CLAN LINN. 

^VLafo Hilliam ICtntt anfc iFamilg. 

(CONTRIBUTED BY DR. SAMUEL H. LINN.) 

HUGH WILLIAM LINN was born in 1818 in 
County Clare, Ireland. August 12, 1840, he married Miss 
Mary Chadvvick, of Manchester, England, at Dublin, Ire- 
land. Emigrating to this country they settled in Phila- 
delphia, Pa., where they made their home until his death 
at the age of 82. Mrs. H. W. Linn is still living in Phila- 
delphia. Hugh W. Linn was an honest, sturdy, hard- 
working man, a good Christian, devoting his whole life 
to his wife and children. Their home life was an ideal 
one and, although unable to supply all the luxuries of 
life, it was a happy, helpful home. Mr. Linn was a life- 
long member of the Masonic Order and the I. O. O. F. 

Their marriage was blessed with six sturdy sons and 
two daughters, of whom four sons, William, Samuel, 
Thomas and Hugh, and one daughter, Mary A., wife of 
William Adams, still survive. One daughter, Jennie 
Linn, and two sons, Matthew and Benjamin F. Linn, are 
deceased. 

ir. £>amu*l if. Xinn. 

SAMUEL H. LINN, second son of Hugh W. and 
Mary Chadwick Linn, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., 
September 26, 1843. Being obliged to battle with the 
world at an early age, he engaged in various occupations 
during his earlier years. Entering the U. S. Navy as a 
Volunteer Officer during the Civil War he saw active 
service on the U. S. S. "Shamrock" (Flagship, Fourth 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 195 

Division, North Atlantic Squadron), in Albemarle 
Sound, off Edenton, and at the mouth of the Roanoke 
River, also special service on the U. S. Tug "J- E. Baz- 
ley" in same place. Service on the U. S. S. "Aries" off 
Cape Fear and at Fort Fisher, special service at Balti- 
more, Md., and service on the U. S. S. "Mackinaw" in 
the North Atlantic Squadron and West Indies, being hon- 
orably discharged, June 1, 1866. 

After obtaining a degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery 
he went abroad and located at St. Petersburg, Russia, 
where he practiced eight years, returning to this country 
in 1877 to take his degree of M.D. at the University of 
Pennsylvania, after which he again took up his residence 
at St. Petersburg for ten years, numbering among his 
patients the present Dowager Empress and several mem- 
bers of the Imperial Family. During his 18 years' resi- 
dence in Russia he returned to America every year, and 
has a record of crossing the ocean 40 times. 

Since his permanent return to the United States in 
1887 he has divided his time and residence between 
Brooklyn, New York City and Rochester, where he has 
been located for the past 15 years. He has contributed 
his mite to the cause of medicine and medical literature, 
besides having made a translation of Dr. E. Doyen's 
"Technique Chirurgicale," a work of 600 pages. 

Dr. Linn married in 1886 Edith Lenore Willis, only 
child of Dr. F. L. H. and Love M. Whitcomb Willis. 
Mrs. Linn is a writer of verse and has contributed con- 
siderably to current literature. Her poem "Restless 
Heart Don't Worry So," has been translated into French, 
Russian and German, widely circulated in England and 



ig6 THE CLAN LINN. 



the United States and set to music by three different com- 
posers. She has published several books of verse. 

Two sons have been born to Dr. and Mrs. Linn, Willis, 
aged 18, and Benjamin F., aged 16. The elder is study- 
ing for the Medical and the younger for the Dental pro- 
fession. 

THOMAS LINN, son of Hugh W. and Mary Linn, 
born in Philadelphia, 1845. Like his brother Samuel, his 
earlier energies were directed along various lines. In 
1872 he took the degree of M.D. from the University of 
New York, after which he went abroad and continued 
his medical studies, receiving a diploma from the Fac- 
ulte de medicine of Paris. He is now practicing medi- 
cine at Nice, France, in winter, and at Geneva, Switzer- 
land, in summer. He has contributed much to medical 
literature both in this country, England and France. He 
has ever sought the company of good books and sages, 
rather than conspicuous position, and by his brothers is 
considered the "scientific" member of the family. He is 
a recognized authority on European Health Resorts, 
(see "The Health Resorts of Europe," London). He is 
a member of the "Continental Anglo-American Medical 
Society" and for several years was Physician to the Bath- 
ing Establishments at Aix-les-Bains and Marlioz, Mem- 
ber of the British Medical Association and Fellow of the 
New York Academy of Medicine, etc., etc. 

With his wife Annette he is reaping the reward of his 
well-directed efforts and in all probability he will spend 
his remaining years abroad. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 197 

Ir. ijwjlj 3amfB ICtttn. 

HUGH JAMES LINN born in Philadelphia, Pa., May 
26, 1850. Received education in the public schools of 
Philadelphia. Studied dentistry and graduated in 1875 
from the Penna. College of Dental Surgery. Practiced 
dentistry in Paris, France. Returned to America and 
took up the study of medicine, and in 1878 graduated 
from the Medical Department, University of Pennsylva- 
nia. Has since practiced medicine in New York City and 
Buffalo, N. Y. Was married to Mary E. Shaughney, of 
Philadelphia. Pa., May 26th, 1872. Has one child, Lewis 
Fields Linn, born in Philadelphia, Pa., April 25th, 1883, 
who was married August 24th, 1905, to Bertha Louise 
Knight, of Buffalo, N. Y., born in Buffalo, March 21st, 
1884. 



14 



198 THE CLAN LINN. 



Mm (iGtmt) (Eampbrll 
Robert (ftampbelL 

(CONTRIBUTED BY MRS. DANIEL RALPH ENNIS.) 

JANE LINN was born in 1795, in Horse Valley, Cum- 
berland (now Perry) county, Penna., and died near Con- 
cord, Franklin county, Penna., April 7, 1842. In 1817 
she was married to Robert Campbell, with whom she lived 
in harmony till death. To them were born eight children. 

Her most marked characteristics, perhaps, were her 
unbounded energy and remarkable piety. As the mother 
of a laree family she was a most industrious, frugal and 
God-fearing woman, and by her strong personality im- 
pressed indelibly upon her children these same traits of 
diligence and economy, softened by a simple faith in God. 
The spinning wheel occupied a prominent place in the 
economy of the household ; flax for linen, and wool for 
the family flannel as well as yarn for the numerous 
stockings must all be prepared in the home. But work 
never was allowed to interfere with the observance of the 
Sabbath. She was a most devout Christian woman, a 
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and was al- 
most extreme in her religious views and observances. 
Vegetables that were not gathered on Saturday were 
notable by their absence on the Sunday dinner table; 
choice berries brought her, by her children, were refused 
if gathered on the Sabbath Day. 

The health of Mrs. Jane Campbell was ailing for a 
number of years previous to her death and on one occas- 
ion her family despaired of her recovery. At this time 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 199 

her brother John Linn came to see her. After calling at 
her bedside and noting her enfeebled condition, he re- 
tired to the barn to pray. His earnest pleadings were 
audible to those at the house, to which he soon returned 
with the glad assurance, "Well, Jennie, you'll not die 
this time." A few years later when the spring blossoms 
were spreading their fragrance on the air, she died, ex- 
horting her children, some of whom were yet quite young, 
to meet her in heaven. 

ROBERT CAMPBELL was born in the year 1798, in 
Franklin County, Pa. Though bearing an unmistakable 
Scotch name, his immediate ancestors were of Irish birth 
and doubtless belonged to the famous group of Protest- 
ants who fled from Scotland to Ireland to escape religious 
persecution. He was a man of sterling character and of 
an unusually kind disposition. As a young man he mar- 
ried Jane Linn, and they made their home near the little 
village of Concord, sheltered on all sides by the moun- 
tains, which to them were the inevitable boundaries. 
In this home in Franklin County were born to them a 
large family, and from it the mother was carried to her 
resting place on the hill, not far away ; and the father was 
left to perform that most difficult task in life — take the 
part of mother as well as father to a family. This he did 
most nobly, bringing up the children in "the faith of our 
fathers." 

When the children were grown and all but two married, 
he married Miss Herron, with whom he lived till his 
death, in December, 1880. 

After a few years the old home, with its fine brick 
buildings, passed into the hands of strangers, though still 
known as the "Old Campbell Place." 



200 THE CLAN LINN. 



•Dtarg (3Cum) 30allarr. 

NANCY LINN WALLACE, youngest child of Hugh 
Linn, was born 1801, and married to Hugh Wallace, 
1820. Small of stature but light of foot as a deer, she 
was a marvel of agility and energy. For fifty-eight years 
she fulfilled faithfully and well the offices of wife and 
mother, holding her family well in hand, and superin- 
tending efficiently the work of the farm after her hus- 
band's decease until her children were able to relieve 
her of the responsibility. 

She was a hospitable woman whose door was ever open 
to anyone in distress, as well as to her own friends. She 
survived her husband fourteen years, and in 1868 was 
called to meet him in another life. 

Jnfjtt 3§allarr. 

JOHN WALLACE, oldest son of Hugh and Nancy 
(Linn) Wallace, was born at Concord, Pa., 1821, and 
married Elizabeth Berry, 1848. Receiving a common 
school education, he taught school for a time, but his ag- 
gressive and energetic spirit soon called him into the 
more stirring scenes of life and he went to Kansas as a 
pioneer in the fifties, when that State was rent by political 
factions, which for a time made it, as was said of Ken- 
tucky in the Indian wars, "a dark and bloody ground/' 
He there engaged in stock raising and farming, and did 
his full share in the development of the country. For many 
years his nearest depot of supplies was Kansas City or 
Fort Leavenworth, a hundred and fifteen miles away, and 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 201 

ox teams the only conveyance, necessitating several weeks 
for making a trip. He served as Justice of the Peace in 
the new State, and was very popular, though a mob once 
lynched a desperado he had arrested. He brought up a 
family of five children, four of whom are still residents 
of the "Sunflower State." Industrious and economical, 
he acquired several sections of fine farming land, and 
some thousands of dollars in ready money, and died at 
the age of eighty-three years, leaving behind him an ex- 
ample of thrift and energy worthy of the State of his 
adoption. 

fuul? Wallar*. ir. 

and 

&arafj Ann (£>tak?) Hallarp. 

HUGH WALLACE, JR., was born 1838 and died 
1904. He lived all his life in the homestead at Concord, 
Pa. His father died when he was but sixteen years of 
age, and he was left with his brother, Henry, to cultivate 
the farm and care for his mother and sisters. The Civil 
War called Henry into the service, to be brought home 
in a coffin in 1863, and henceforth the entire responsi- 
bility of caring for the family depended on the exertions 
of Hugh. He grappled with the task unflinchingly, and 
when many would have been disheartened, continued 
year after year to do his work in a heroic and unselfish 
manner. 

In 1872 he married MISS SARAH ANN STAKE, 
who proved a most industrious and efficient helpmate, 



202 THE CLAN LINN. 



and two children were added to the household, one of 
them still living with her mother, and one married, in 
1896, to William Shearer, of Spring Run, Pa. Hugh 
Wallace was a man of excellent character, earnest, gen- 
erous to a fault, always ready to assist a friend by day 
or night, honest to the core, and his word was as good as 
his bond. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 203 



Sr. George 3§Uba Utrnt. 

GEORGE WILDS LINN, third son of James Wid- 
ney Linn, was born 1844, received an academic educa- 
tion at Tuscarora Academy, Juniata County, Pa., volun- 
teered during the Civil War in the 107th Regiment, 
Pennsylvania Infantry, and was with the Federal Army 
on the evacuation of Richmond and Petersburg and at 
the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox Court 
House, May 9, 1865. At the close of the war he again 
entered student life, graduated from Dickinson College, 
Carlisle, Pa., in 1869, and was assigned the Latin saluta- 
tory oration at commencement. He studied medicine at 
the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and receiv- 
ed the degree of Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) in 1872. 
He subsequently received the degree of Master of Arts 
(A.M.) from Dickinson College, and that of Doctor of 
Philosophy (Ph.D.) from the University of Pennsylva- 
nia. He spent a year and a half as assistant physician in 
hospital work in Philadelphia, and then went abroad to 
pursue special studies in medicine at the Universities of 
Gottingen and Vienna, where he remained nearly two 
years. Returning to America he began the practice of 
medicine in Philadelphia and was appointed one of the 
physicians and lecturers on the staff of the Philadelphia 
Hospital, a position held for six years, when a^ long 
and critical illness (pleuro-pneumonia) disabled him so 
permanently that he was compelled to relinquish all pri- 
vate and public work indefinitely. He spent several 
years in Colorado and California, in hope of recuperat- 



204 THE CLAN LINN. 



ing, and when in Los Angeles accepted the Professor- 
ship of Clinical Medicine in the University of Southern 
California, but the precarious condition of his health re- 
quired him, after a year, to forego the greatest pleasure 
of his life, that of teaching. 

In 1878 he married Miss Xaomi Anderson Fisher, of 
Brvn Mawr, Pa. 

His permanent address is Brvn Mawr, Pa. 









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